Tom Riddle and the first death eaters
by KidaRiddle
Summary: It's been ten years since Voldemort completely took over Toms body and has now formed a group of death eaters, but as always there is trouble. Exactly who is Sarah and will they ever find Adam Henry son? Sequel to Tom Riddles sixth year at Hogwarts.
1. Authors note

Hello everyone. Some of you might remember me from the story Tom Riddles sixth year at Hogwarts and some of you might not. Anyway. This is a sequel to the story mentioned in the previous sentence and is going to take place ten years in the future. Some of this might be confusing, but I'll try to make a short recap here.

So, in the last story Tom was in his sixth year at Hogwarts with his best friends Abraxas Malfoy, Cygnus Black, Rose Movo and Melinda Rocko. Rose, being the disobedient girl in the group is killed rather early in the story and Melinda, being her best friend is grieving. Tom alters her memory and makes it look like Rose has just left the school without any reason. Later on, Melinda asks Tom to go on a ball with her and Tom, hesitantly, says yes. That is when he realizes his true feelings about Melinda and has finally found love. The problem is that Tom's alter ego, Voldemort, does not agree with this feeling and is making Tom feel worse and worse. In the meantime, Melinda gets poisoned by another student named Mark and after a couple of days in coma, she dies. Tom is heartbroken and his hate for Mark and love grows enough to make Voldemort take over completely. Tom succeeds in throwing him out and begins to learn Occlumency to shut him out. When he has managed to get it somewhat under control, he goes to Dumbledore. The one teacher that he hates and to Dumbledores surprise, Tom tells him everything about Voldemort. Tom goes back to the dormitory where Voldemort get the control back and if it weren't for Dumbledore paralyzing him, he would probably have killed someone. Tom, or Voldemort wakes up at the Hogwarts express a couple of days later and Tom realized in his mind that his and Voldemorts mind has become one. Voldemort is not as evil as he was before, but Tom isn't as nice as he was before and kills Mark out of rage on the train. This is where the story ended and now it's been ten years since all of that happened. Unfortunately, most of the times the past gets back and bite us in the ass, am I right?

I'm not sure I got all the times right but this is how I wanted it. Tom is still working at Borgin and Burkes and is in the middle of the story going to speak with Dumbledore, who is now headmaster at Hogwarts, but fails to get the job. Hepzibah Smith is still alive and Tom has not made all the horcruxes yet. In the meantime, the death eaters are, on Voldemorts orders, trying to find a man named Adam Henryson, for his information at the ministry, which Tom is eager to take over. This fails repeatedly and Tom loses his patience...

Let's not tell more about the story now, you'll just have to read. Hope you will enjoy this. Hope to see any reviews soon. In addition, for your information I will post the first chapter as soon as I can.

That's all from me. Have a good day.

KidaRiddle


	2. Ten years later

Okey, here's the first chapter. I hope you'll all like it.

Thanks to **Erzibeth-Malfoy** for Beta-ing this story. I don't know what I would do without you.

**Chapter 1: Two years later**

Tom Riddle, better known as Voldemort, sat on a chair at Borgin and Burkes. He had murdered. More then he wanted to admit. Someone knocked at the door and entered carefully. He was wearing a black cloak and wore and a mask to hide the face. Tom nodded against the chair next to him. The man sat down on the chair without a word, seeming to wait for permission to speak.

"What do you want?" Tom muttered, but the man didn't seem to notice and kept quiet.

"What do you want I asked?" Tom stood up.

"There's a complication my lord." The man looked down on the floor, clearly ashamed of what he had just told his master.

Tom said nothing, but the man apparently noticed that he should continue.

"We were able to locate Adam Henryson, but unfortunately the ministry interrupted before we could get to him and he escaped." The man looked at the dark lord, who was unmistakably angrier then what he had been before the news.

"He got away?" Tom turned from the death eater and leaned against one of the table standing in the corner.

The unknown man could no nothing more then to nod.

"How did the ministry find out what you were doing?"

"Apparently, there's a spy among us. We're trying to locate him now. Unfortunately, it's not as simple as it sounds.

"Do I have to do everything myself? Tom was boiling with anger.

"No, of course not, my lord. Why do you think that?"

Tom never answered the questing. Instead he just grabbed his cloak and apparated away. The man could do nothing but to follow.

Tom landed on the yard behind the Abraxas' newly bought Manor Abraxas had recently attained it and the weeds were still growing uncontrollable everywhere. He went around the house to the main entry, where a group of men were talking with each other in low voices.

"Where's Abraxas?"

One of the men nodded against the door and Tom went up the stairs to the door. He knocked several times, but when no one answered, he decided to let himself in. It was visible that no living man had lived there for ages, since the room contained nothing more then dust and spider webs.

After searching the main floor, he walked up the stairs. He looked in about four rooms before he found what he was looking for. He almost laughed himself to death when he saw Abraxas on a ladder with a flowery apron on the robes, trying to clean the roof in a very muggle way.  
He must have heard Tom, because he turned around, climbed down, removed his apron and brushed the dust away.

"Hello Tom. What can I do for you?" He asked and showed his lord into a much cleaner room.

"I presume you know what happened to Henryson?" Tom started calmly.

Abraxas nodded and sat down in an armchair. Tom hesitated for a moment before sitting down in the other chair. This was probably not the best thing to do, since a thick layer of dust arose from it and Tom was forced to stand up again. He gave Abraxas a nasty look, but only received a grin back.

"I guess you've heard that we have a traitor among us…" Tom was stopped.

"You don't think I…?"

Tom shook his head and Abraxas quieted.

"Of course not, don't be silly. What I want you to do are simple. All you have to do is tell me if someone is acting strange or if you hear anything out of the ordinary. Got it?"

Abraxas looked as if he thought about what Tom just said, but only a couple of seconds later he nodded.

"As you wish."

Tom was satisfied with the answer and disapparated. It had become late and he hadn't realized how late it really was until he looked at his watch. Since it was eleven-thirty, he decided that it was time to go to bed, so he changed, brushed his teeth and crawled down in bed.

A moment later, he was asleep.

Someone knocked at the door and Tom woke up almost immediately. It was Saturday, which meant this was his day off. He grabbed a couple of pants and went to open the door. It was one of his few friends.

"Abraxas. What do you want?" Suddenly he wasn't tired at all anymore.

"Mitch Carson. He started acting weird last night after you left." He spoke very fast and his friend had a hard time hearing what he said.

"Relax Abraxas. What do you mean by weird?"

"Soon after you had left he started talking about lots of strange things. Especially the ministry and how they would get to you, even though they didn't seem to know it was you, but someone. They think you're older. A lot older.

"Where is he now?" Tom was very upset, since it was likely he who was the traitor.

"He left after one o'clock last night. We're trying to find him, but since more then half of us are still looking for Henryson it's going very slow. We're working on it though."

He looked at Tom in a strange way. "So, what do we do? Do we keep looking for Henryson or should we find Mitch instead?"

"You're going to continue with Henryson. I'll deal with Mitch myself.

"Tom, are you sure that's such a good idea? He knows what we can do and is probably working on turning you in to the ministry."

"No, you're probably right. It's not smart, but I have to deal with him. And you should know better then to question my decision", stated Tom superiorly.

"Yes, my lord. I just don't want anything to happen with you. You know this. Ever since Voldemort and you became one you have been acting strange. I know I shouldn't stick my nose in your private life, but I'm worried about you.

"Don't be. I'll be just fine. Find Henryson instead. It's more important then being worried about me", Tom spat with such hatred that Abraxas backed and lowered his head in respect.

"Relax. I'll be quiet and find Henryson as you wish." With that, he left the apartment.

Tom stayed, paralyzed in the living room, realizing that Abraxas was right. He didn't like it, but he had to admit it. He took a deep breath and apparated to Hogsmeade. He didn't know why he chose that place, but he needed to get away. Away from everything and everyone and back to the only place he had ever called home. Where he stood now, he could see Hogwarts and it calmed him. He really longed to be back there.

He had no idea of how long he had been standing there. It could have been two minutes, as well as two hours, it was cold outside and when he started freezing he went to the three broomsticks and ordered a Butterbeer. He sat down at a table in the corner furthest away, looking out on the few people who were there. Tom counted it to five people, unless you counted the bartender.

The door opened and a young woman entered. She looked so much like Melinda that it was frightening. He had to talk to her. Only to ask if they had known each other. He sat down on the chair next to hers.

"Hi."

"Hi." She even spoke like Melinda.

"I'm sorry I know it's a stupid question, but didn't by any chance know a girl named Melinda?" He tried to put as much charm on as possible and as usual, it worked, but maybe not the way he had wanted it to. She started crying and Tom found it very annoying, but despite that be hugged her, just like he had hugged Melinda when she had been sad.

"How are you feeling", he asked when she had stopped crying.

"Melinda was my twin sister."

That really shocked Tom. Never, not even in his wildest imagination he believed that they had actually known each other.

"Did you know her?" she asked carefully.  
"Yes. I was dating her the year she…" He didn't even bother to finish the sentence. He had never imagined in his entire life that it could hurt that much to think about someone. All he wanted to do was to run away, but he knew better then that. Besides, she looked so much like Melinda that we wondered if he was ever going to be able to let her go.

"Really? She never mentioned a boyfriend. It wasn't Melindas style."

"I didn't notice. If you are twins, how come I haven't seen you at Hogwarts? Tom was a very curious boy.

"I never went to Hogwarts. I went to a school down in Germany instead, our mother is from there you see. Adradrios was its name. We fought too much to be able to go in the same school so mom and dad decided to send us to separate schools.

Tom nodded.  
"That means you speak German, right?" He wanted a conversation, but it hurt too much to speak about Melinda so he tried to change subject.

"Ja, Ich spreche sehr gut Deutsch. Sprechen Sie Deutsch?"

Tom was laughing.

"I don't speak German so please translate." He was happy she understood what he was trying to do

"I said: 'Yes, I'm very good at German. Do you speak German?' Apparently, you don't speak a word. Melinda knew as well. We've been taught both languages. Dad thought it would be simpler then.

"I understand." They laughed together when the door opened and a man entered.

Tom sighed.

"I have to leave now, but I'll owl you. What's your name by the way?" He couldn't believe he hadn't asked that before.

"Sarah", she called after him.

Tom repeated the name in his head. He didn't think he would ever forget it.

The man waited for him outside and whispered something at Tom, who apparated immediately.

"What's going on?" Tom was annoyed and being very hungry wasn't helping. His stomach was screaming with hunger.

The man who had picked him up was the same as the man who had told him about Henrysons disappearance. His name was Jonas. Jonas Johansson.

"We had Mitch here just a second ago, but he ran away again, my lord." Jonas seemed desperate to find an explanation when he saw Toms face.

"Explain!" It was more a command then a wish.

"We were able to locate and find him. Even catch him, but somehow our spells had no effect on him. He disappeared before we could get to him again.

Jonas looked at his shoes, while Tom was vibrating with fury.

"Can't you do anything right? At least tell me you cast a tracking-spell on him." He seemed calmer then he was.

No answer and Tom hit the death eater closest to him. Jonas.

"Pathetic fools. Didn't I tell you to find Henryson instead of Mitch!?" He was both angry and scared, but of course, he didn't show them the fear.

He was scared for what Mitch would do if Tom didn't catch him.

"Leave Mitch to me. Find Henryson instead and don't question my orders again. Understood?"

Still no answer.

"I asked if that was understood." Tom lowered his and some people mumbled something, apparently sensing the danger in Toms voice.

"I can't hear you!?" He screamed. The death eater all fell to their knees immediately, bowing their heads. "Tell me if I am making myself clear."

"Yes, my lord." Everyone seemed to have understood the silent threat and Tom dismissed them.

He apparated to his apartment and fixed something to eat. A couple of sandwiches seemed good. When he was done, he sat down at the kitchen table, starting to write that letter to Sarah.

_ Sarah; _  
_I'm very happy to have met you, sine you made me remember something that I have been trying to forget for such a long time. It felt nice to be able to talk with someone like that again. It's been a while since I could do that. I want you to know that there's not been a day without me thinking about her. Perhaps we can meet someday and keep talking. That would be nice and I'm looking forward to your reply. If you don't want to talk about her, I understand. More then you could possible imagine. It painful for me as well since she's the only one I have ever loved. I'm grateful for a quick reply. Have a nice day._  
_Tom Riddle_

It would have to do; he thought and crossed the room to get the owl Barny, who was now very willing to deliver the letter. He had been out several days in a row now, but it had been a while since Tom sent any letters with him. He tied it around Barny's leg and he hooted before flying off. Tom looked at his watch.

"Only nine-thirty", he sighed to himself and lay down on his bed with a book in his hands. He didn't plan to fall asleep, but he could feel his eyelids getting heavier and soon he was sleeping very deep. So deep, that he never heard the front door open and someone sneaking into the room.

TBC

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So, you like it? If you do, then perhaps you can click in the button below and tell me what you thought. Good? Bad? Maybe you can even tell me what is good and what is bad?


	3. Oh oh oh

**Sorry for making you wait for so ling, but school is taking up all my time. Thanks again to my wonderful Beta Erzibeth-Malfoy for her wonderful job. Cookie for you. Hopefully you'll get the next chapter soon, but as said before it depends on school. Take care everyone.**

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****Chapter 2: Oh, oh, oh**

Tom woke up when he felt his snake slithering around his legs and was just about to sit up when he heard something fall to the floor.

_"Someone's here, master."_ Nagini slithered back down to the floor.

_"Come back here. Don't let him see you_." Tom closed his eyes, pretending to still be asleep

_"As you wish master, though I don't like it_." The snake slowly turned and slithered back into the corner as Tom grabbed his wand from the side table. He was waiting for the man's steps to disappear from the apartment, and when they didn't he carefully got up and quietly snuck to the door to try and find out where exactly the man was. He could hear the intruder in the bathroom and after giving Nagini a sharp look he snuck closer.

_'Perfect. Just perfect. Just what I wanted'_, Tom thought sarcastically before sneaking even closer.

Tom opened the door and when he peeked in, he realized that the man was turned away from him. He took a deep breath before completely opening the door with his wand raised against the trespasser.

"Who are you and what are you doing here?""

"My name is Jack Smith and what I'm doing here is none of your concern", he stated and Tom realized that this was a man who never gave up.

"Since I live here I think this is some of my concern."

"Perhaps. There are a couple of papers here, are they not? I want them." He raised his wand as well and pointed it at Toms chest.

"Is it really smart to duel me?"

"You shouldn't duel me", Jack spat in a way that made Tom laugh high.

"That was funny? Stupefy." The recently unknown man shouted, but Tom just laughed and stepped aside.

"Incarcerous." He was just playing with Smith now. This was only the beginning.

"Petrificus Totalus." He shouted so high that Tom could hear his next door neighbor sit up in his apartment, trying to figure out where the noise came from.

"I'm getting tired of this. Crucio." Tom flicked his wand in a bored way against Jack, who instantly fell down to his knees in both fear and pain.

Tom watched how he writhed in pain on the floor and screamed. How he was desperately trying to make it stop. Then Tom realized the neighbor was still awake and cast a silencing-spell on his victim. He let the curse last for less then thirty seconds. By then Smith lay on the floor, trying to catch his breath.

"This is your fault remember. I warned you not to duel me." Tom hadn't planned to kill him, but soon realized he had to. Otherwise, he would probably go to the ministry and tell them he had used one of the unforgivable curses.

"I'm sorry. I never meant for this to happen. I can't let you go tell anyone of what I have done. Avada Kedavra."

Tom made the body disappear with an easy spell and went to get some well-needed sleep.

He woke up late next morning. It was not like him to do so, but maybe it was because he had been up so much of last night. The owl Barny hooted and knocked on the window with his beak and Tom thought it was probably the reason for him waking up. He yawned and stretched before walking over to the window to let him inside. He had a letter bound to his foot and suddenly Tom was very anxious to know what it said. Because of that, he unrolled the letter fast and read it.

_Tom;  
It was nice meeting you as well and I would love to meet you again. How about next Saturday in the same place? However, we don't have to talk about her, do we? It's so hard. Two o'clock, is that okay for you? I truly hope so 'because it's the only time I will be able to make it since I work Saturday and being away Sunday.  
Sarah Rocko_

Tom smiled to himself and wrote the answer down on a leftover parchment.

_Sarah;  
Sounds good. See you then.  
Tom Riddle._

He sent the letter away with Barny and then went to have a shower. The water was hot and Tom could almost immediately feel how all the tiredness was washed away from him.

A while later he turned the water off and got dressed. Only a second later he apparated to Abraxas Manor.

Tom landed downstairs and called for Abraxas who approached him in the same apron he had worn last time. Tom smiled, but decided not to say anything.

"Anything new on Henryson?"

"I'm afraid not. We have been looking everywhere, but we can't find him. He must have vanished." Abraxas shrugged like it really didn't matter.

"Since you can't find him, you could hardly have looked everywhere. Am I right?"

"I guess", Abraxas sighed heavily.

"Something's wrong?" Tom looked at him.

"In fact, yes. My parents want to marry me with my cousin."

"And you don't want to do that?"

"I'm not sure. It all came so suddenly. I don't want to be forced into a marriage."

"Why not? The pureblood families have to keep existing."

"You and your nagging about pureblood families. Is that everything you have in mind?"

Abraxas was really annoyed with all of Toms talk about pureblood families and started to have enough of it.

"What's that supposed to mean? Do you mean that the world should just continue to be as filthy in the future as it is now?"

"I don't know. Maybe I do."

Tom furiously raised his wand against his follower and friend.

"Dare say that again."

"I said that I don't agree with you, but maybe your pathetic brain didn't catch that."

"Crucio!"

Abraxas fell to the ground with a scream and for the third time in three days, Tom used and unforgivable curse.  
He let the curse wear off after a couple of minutes and Malfoy soon got on his feet again.

"Don't you agree with me?" Tom saw Abraxas terrified look and smiled to himself.

"Of course, my lord.

Sometimes it was scary how fast it was to convince someone to think the same way as you did yourself. This wasn't any question. It was an order.

"I like her." Abraxas looked down on the ground, embarrassed, but Tom raised his eyebrows and smiled.

"And the problem is"

"She might not like me."

"I can't understand why you're nagging about it if you like her. I'll talk to her.

"My lord, I…"

"No, I'll do it. Otherwise, you would just screw it up as you usually do. Be at some use and try and find as much information about Jack Smith instead." Abraxas nodded and both of them left.

Once there, he met several odd people, who greeted him. Since they were all purebloods they had, of course, heard a lot about him and they told him, repeated times, how honored they were to have him in their house.

"I need to speak with Alice."

The men and women protested, but immediately showed him to Alice room when they saw his smile falter. It was nice and roomy and for a second, Tom wondered why he didn't live like this. Then he realized he didn't have the money.

"Wait here. She'll be here in a minute." He was left alone for a while and impatient as he was he thought it took too long time to fetch the young girl.

A couple of minutes later, the woman finally came back with a girl, that Tom believed was around eighteen or nineteen years old. She was very beautiful, but Tom didn't care. He wasn't there to study her beauty, but to make her marry Abraxas.

"Hello." He said. It was always good to be polite in a conversation.

"Hello sir", she curtseyed and contemplated Toms face.

"Your parents want you to marry Abraxas Malfoy, don't they? Tom looked at her for a while.

"Yes sir. That is true." She looked down on her feet.

"Don't you want that? Don't you want the pureblood families to keep existing?" It was the same question he had asked Abraxas earlier that day.

"Of course I do sir. It's just that I'm scared. I'm only eighteen and I'm not sure that I am mature enough to marry someone just yet." She didn't seem to care that Tom was watching her intensely.

"I understand, but Abraxas likes you and he seem to slip further and further away from me and I don't like that."

"I'm sorry sir, I did not know." She looked really ashamed now.

"The problem is that he doesn't want to marry you unless you like him. Do you?

"He's my cousin. No one should be forced to marry their cousin." Tom didn't give a damn if she liked Abraxas or not.

"As I said, it's a problem and I want you to marry him."

"Sure. I still don't have a choice. Mother and Father are going to force me to marry him before the end of this week anyway.

"I know, but I want you to pretend that you actually like him."

Alice looked at Tom, terrified, shaking her head violently.

"Please, don't make me do that. I do anything, but not that."

"You heard me. That is my final word. Tomorrow you will go to Abraxas and tell him how much you like him. Make sure to be convincing. Good afternoon."

Tom went down to the kitchen to say good-bye and tell them how much a wanted to come to the wedding.

"Everything went well, I presume?" Tom could only see the shadow of Alice father, who sat on a chair at the kitchen table.

"Excellent actually. If everything goes as planned, the marriage could be held in a week. Something I don't want to miss."

"Of course sir. We'll make sure you'll have an invitation as soon as possible."

"Thank you then. I'll see you soon." Then he disapparated to Abraxas house.

Abraxas jumped at least three feet when Tom showed up only am inch in front of him.

"God you scared me. Please don't do that again. How did it go with Alice by the way?"

Tom laughed icily and noticed Abraxas confused look.

"It couldn't have gone better. In fact, she thought the same way you did. Marrying you is the only thing she wants, but she's scared that you don't like her. I told her to come and explain to you tomorrow." That was of course a lie, but Abraxas seemed to believe it and that was exactly what Tom wanted.

"Thank you."

"What for?"

"For doing this."

"It was nothing. What did you find out about Jack?"

"There is no one in England with that name. I'm checking abroad as well, but it might take some time. We live in a big world you know."

"I know, but don't mind any more. He's dead and therefore less important. Henryson is much more important. How's it going with that by the way?"

"As good as it can go. Although we have some trouble finding him, but we're checking every thinkable place he can be at. We also have people at the ministry working on it for us."

"Good. Keep doing that and inform me when you've found him. And cast a tracing spell on him if you find him. Just in case he disappear again."

"Yes, we know. You've told us at least a million times by now. We know what to do."

Abraxas went up the stairs and left Tom alone at the entrance door.

Tom sighed thought for a while, before deciding to go to the leaky cauldron to have a butterbeer, and disapparated.  
Once there he bumped into someone. Tom shook his head, clearly annoyed, without checking who he really bumped into.

Only a couple of seconds later, he realized it was Mitch. Oh, how sorry he would be for the fact that he had taken something to drink at this hour. Tom thought it was fate and turned. He caught up with Mitch once he got outside the door.

"Where in hell have you been?" He was furious and it was a miracle that he didn't kill Mitch instantly.

"At my mother and father. Mother is sick and I had to take care of her for a while, but now I'm back." It was a cheap excuse and Tom didn't even need to use legilimency to understand that he was lying.

"Come." Tom dragged him with himself as if nothing had happened.

He didn't let go until they were in his apartment.

"What's the matter with you? Are you out of your mind?" Mitch seemed annoyed from the unfair treatment, but for the moment, Tom didn't care. Not that he usually did, but still.

"No, I'm not out of my mind, but I wonder if you aren't."

"What have I done?"

"You know that better then anyone, but don't lie to me." Tom tried to stay calm, but it wasn't easy when all he wanted was to kill the man in front of him.

"Have I ever lied to you, my lord?" Mitch sank down on his knees before Tom.

"Stop that. It's not going to help. Stand." Tom knew he only did that to calm him down, but this time it didn't work.

Mitch did as he was told. As if he could do anything else.

"Where is Henryson?"

"How am I supposed to know?"

"You told the ministry of our plans and made sure they were there in time to protect Henryson, am I right?" Tom was smirking, and Mitch looked even more in panic then he had before.

"Since you already seem to know. Yes, it was I." Apparently, confessing hurt pretty bad.

"At least you're honest. It's a shame it have to be like this, but I've never liked traitors."

Tom raised his wand against Mitch, who stood as still as if he had been paralyzed by a stunning spell.

TBC...

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	4. Missing

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything from the Harry Potter series. All charachters, but a few of my own, belongs to J.K Rowling. **

**S****o, here's another chapter. Sorry for the slow update, but school is taking a lot more of my time then I had expected. Hope you'll like this chapter and thanks to Lady Cathy who has been the only one that has told me that it's good. Cookie for you. Eat it slow :)**

**Also thanks to my wonderful Beta Erzibeth-Malfoy. You're my angel.**

**Chapter 3: Missing**

Tom kept his wand aimed at Mitch's chest and just a second later, he lowered it again. He wouldn't kill him. At least not yet.

"This must be your lucky day. I will let you leave for now, but I want you at the meeting this Sunday."

Mitch nodded and disapparated quickly.

Only a couple of second later he changed his mind once more and wanted to call Mitch back just to kill him, but he could just do it on Sunday instead. He went into The Three Broomsticks, ordered a butterbear and sat down at the table in the corner as he always did. No one disturbed him and he found that he appreciated that very much. He had many things to think about. What he would do with Mitch, where Henryson was and then Sarah of course. Tom liked her. He knew that Voldemort couldn't love, but that didn't mean that he couldn't. Somewhere deep down he loved her. He barely wanted to admit it to himself, but he had loved Melinda as well.

He finished the last of the butterbear and went back to this apartment above the Leaky Cauldron in London. He stepped inside and stopped abruptly. The apartment was almost literally turned upside down. The clothes were spread out in the whole apartment, the furniture was topsy-turvy and not to speak about the breakfast that was spread out over the whole apartment.

Tom stepped into the room and almost fell over a package of milk that was laying on the floor inside the door. He regained his balance and walked further into the apartment.

"Scourgify." He only mumbled it and the room started to clean itself.

He sat down in an old armchair that was standing in a corner, trying to figure out who did this.

He sighed and when he looked up the room was clean again, and he apparated to Abraxas house and walked down to the little pond that belonged to the house. Tom sat down on the grass and looked out over the lake. It was calm and you could see the sun go down above the trees. The sky was pink and Tom remembered the last sunset he and Melinda had watched together.

Suddenly he heard a branch crack and turned hastily. It was only Jason Malcovich. A death eater that meant nothing to Tom. Most important was that he did as he was told.

"What are you doing here?" asked Malcovich, jeering.

"I can't remind myself of why I'm supposed to answer to you. I believed it was the other way around, don't you agree?" Tom stood up and watched the death eater in front of him with a deadly glare.

"Of course, my lord. I apologize."

"Good. Leave me alone."

Malcovich bowed and disapparated.

Tom sat down in the now damp grass and continued staring out of the lake. The sky had moved on to darker shades and you barely saw the pink sky any longer. The sun had sunken so deep that the forest covered it, but it you looked very closely you could still see it between the trees.

He looked at his watch and decided to apparate back to the apartment. He was, after all, going to work the next day. Unfortunately, he had to work. He hated the job, but it was better then working at the ministry. He couldn't even place himself at a department at the ministry. Only the thought of it disgusted him. No. He wanted to work at Hogwarts. Or actually he just wanted to be there to find out more of the secrets that was hidden there. He had found most of them, but he was sure there was even more. He wanted to explore the chamber more then he had already done. So far, he had only been into a couple of tunnels and he was dying to see more of it.

He was brought back to reality when someone knocked on his shoulder.

"Are you alright?" The voice was unfamiliar to Tom and therefore he turned around very slowly.

"I'm fine." He ripped the hand from his shoulder and stared sourly at the man.

"I didn't mean to frighten you. You just looked a bit lost. Do you live here?"

"You didn't scare me and no I don't live here. Why?" Tom spat out.

Now the man seemed to realize whom he was speaking to and sank down on his knees.

"I'm sorry my lord. I didn't mean to disturb you."

Tom smiled. Actually, he loved to see people bowing to him, even though he would never admit it. At least not yet.

"Good. Then leave."

Tom disapparated almost faster then the death eater had done.

He was back in the apartment and threw himself on the bed. Only a couple of seconds later you could hear a regular snoring.

Tom woke up the next morning, by the alarm. He reached for the clock and finally succeeded in turning it off. He sat up and stretched himself before putting a couple of pants and a shirt on. Then he went out to the kitchen to have some breakfast. He poured some cornflakes and some milk into a bowl and sat down at the kitchen table to read The Morning Prophet. There was, as usual, nothing new in it and Tom threw it away with a bored look.

When he was done an hour later, he out on his cloak and apparated to Borgin and Burkes in Knockturn alley.

All was completely quiet in the shop when Tom stepped over the threshold and turned the signed that showed if it was open or closed. It jingled pretty well in the door when he let is close behind his back. He put on an apron and a nametag and sat down on a chair behind the desk. He looked at the watch that sat on the wall above a ball with something that looked like a brain in muddled water, but Tom wasn't sure.

Only a couple of minutes later he heard the door open and a little boy come in through it. He couldn't be more then five years old. Tom didn't know why he cared, or even why he was so affected to see the boy alone. Maybe it was because he had been alone as well when he was younger. In any case, he went to speak with the boy.

"Don't you have your parents with you?" Tom watched the crying boy shake his head.

"N-N-No", he sobbed loudly.

"But where do you have them then?"

"I-I don't know."

"That wasn't good. What's your name?"

"John Henderson."

"Everything is going to be all right John. Just relax. Do you know if you were supposed to meet your parents somewhere in case you got lost?"

"No. I was just walking beside mom and then suddenly she was gone." Now he started to sob hysterically again.

"Calm down and I'll see what I can do. Okey. How does that sound?" Tom picked the boy up and carried him to the desk where he put him down again.

"Wait here for a moment and I'll be right back. Okey?"

Tom went out in the layer and apparated to Abraxas, who seemed to get just as surprised every time he stopped by.

"Tom, what are you doing here?"

"It doesn't matter. Come on and I'll explain the rest later."

"I don't know. I have to clean.

"Are you deaf? I said come on." Voldemort started to lose his patience. He had to take care of this permanently now.

"Alright. Alright. I'm coming. Relax. You don't have to get mad."

Tom apparated back to the shop and Abraxas followed nicely.

"Who's the boy?"

"His name is John Henderson and he's lost his parents. Bring him to the ministry and explain the situation to them."

"Tom I don't have time. I have a million things to do today." Abraxas looked from John to Tom and then back to John again.

"This won't take long. What you're supposed to do can wait. I can't work with kids running around and I don't have time to bring him to the ministry on my own."

"Whose fault is it that he's lost in the beginning?"

"How am I supposed to know? Don't forget to whom you're speaking."

"I'm sorry, my lord." He emphasized the last work with contempt and got an angry look back.

"Watch that tone, Malfoy. I only warn you once."

Abraxas flinched at the mention of his last name and disapparated away without another word, leaving Tom alone with the boy. He had to take care of Abraxas later. Tom could almost feel how the hatred boiled inside of him, but he didn't want John to see it. It wouldn't be good if he was frightened now. Maybe later, but definitely not now.

"John. I know that I've been away for a long time and I'm going again. Has there been anyone here?"

The boy shook his head.

"That's good. Can you do me a favor and turn the sign at the door so the shop is closed until I get back?"

John quickly jumped down from the bench and ran to the door to turn the sign.

"Thank you. I'll be right back."

He apparated further to Jonas, who, apparently, wasn't home. There was a sign on the door telling that he was at Abraxas, helping him with the cleaning, so he apparated back to Abraxas Manor.

"JONAS!" Tom screamed so loud that the house-elves in the room gave a frighten jump and disappeared out of the room immediately.

Only a couple of seconds' later steps were heard from the staircase and Jonas came running down from the second floor.

"Good. Follow me."

Tom apparated back to the shop again. This time with Jonas after him.

"Bring the boy to the ministry and make sure he finds his parents." Tom didn't even wait for a reply, but quickly went out to John, who had jumped up and sat on the desk again.

"John. This is Jonas. He's going to take you to the ministry to make sure that you will find your parents again. Okay? You have to take his hand."

John took Jonas hand and Tom received a strange look from his follower.

"What now?"

"I don't have time to do this. I promised to…"

Jonas quieted when he saw Tom's furious look and pulled the boy closer to be able to bring him in the apparition.

Tom sighed and used his wand to turn the sign on the door this time.

The day passed by without anything interesting happening. Customers came and sold and bought stuff like they were supposed to do. A regular and uneventful day. Tom didn't know why, but he wondered what was going on with John. He was worried about him. It wasn't like him to worry, but couldn't help it.

At seven, he closed the shop. He was exhausted. Unfortunately, the whole week was probably going to be this way since nothing really happened this week. It was unusual for him to run the shop on his own since he wasn't the owner, but since Mr. Burkes was in Spain this week he hadn't had any other choice but to let Tom run the shop.

Voldemort apparated to Abraxas, like he always did after work. Mostly to see what was going on with Henryson. This time he wanted to see what happened with John.

In the staircase, he bumped into Jonas who pushed him away.

"Jonas." Tom was surprised, to say the least, to see him there.

"Yes, my lord."

"How did it go with John?"

"Good, my lord. He's at the ministry. Unfortunately, no parents have showed up yet. May I ask why you care? It's not like you to do that."

"Do you know what I think?"

"No, should I?"

"I think that you should stop caring of what I do, stop questioning my orders and do as I say in the future."

"Of course, my lord." Jonas bowed and disappeared.

Tom stood there for a while before disapparating back to his apartment.

TBC...

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**A/N: That's that. And who might John be? Don't worry, you'll find out in the next chapter. Any suggestions on who he might be? Then tell me. I might even be so nice and tell you if you're right or not. Hope you liked it. Cookies for everone who reviews. **

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	5. Reunion

**So, here's the new chapter. Thanks to my Beta Erzibeth-Malfoy for a wonderful job. Hope you'll like it.**

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**Chapter Four: Reunion**

There he sat down on a chair around the kitchen table and reached for the days mail. It was only advertisements, so he threw it away after skimming it through once. He sighed and looked at the watch again. It was barely seven-thirty. Tom got up from the chair and walked to the fridge. A magical one of course, since he refused to bring even one muggle thing into his apartment.

Suddenly the front door burst open and Jason Malcovich came running.

"May I ask why you're breaking in to my apartment?"

"I apologize, my lord, but Mitch has caused some problems again."

Tom looked at Malcovich and apparated as fast as he could to Abraxas who was waiting for him. This was one of the few times he wasn't surprised to see Tom show up from nowhere. Voldemort was glad about it and hoped it would continue.

"What happened?"

"We were going to the kitchen to get a cup of tea when we heard Mitch talk with the ministry about you through the fireplace. Fortunately, they didn't believe him." Abraxas talked and Tom walked towards the kitchen.

"Who did he tell?"

"I don't know their names, but a couple of middle aged wizards I presume." Now it was Malcovich that talked and Tom stopped.

"Would you recognize them if you saw them again?"

"Definitely." Malcovich nodded.

"Good. Go to the ministry and obliviate them."

Jason immediately left.

"You're coming with me", he said to Abraxas, who nodded and followed Tom to the kitchen.

You could still hear how Mitch was trying to persuade the minister people that Tom was evil.

They opened the door ajar so that they could see what Mitch was doing, or well, Tom did. Abraxas was just staying silently in the background. Voldemort pulled out his wand and mumbled some quiet words. The reception to the ministry started to get weaker and weaker and finally it ended completely. This was mostly so that no one would suspect that there was someone who did it and to be on the safe side, Tom cast a spell to prevent anyone from contacting Mitch. It prevented everyone from getting in and out. If you didn't use the door of course.

Then Tom decided that it was time to show himself and opened the door completely and stepped into the room. Mitch quieted immediately and tried to disapparate when he saw Voldemorts furious look, but Toms spell prevented him from doing just that.

"Whoops." He looked embarrassed at Tom and tried to back out of the room.

"Is that all you have to say?" The words were ice-cold and Mitch knew better then to speak at the moment. This was the exact reason for why it was Tom who was the leader and not someone of the other, older wizards.

That silent threat few had heard Tom raise his voice. Maybe when he was a bit irritated or something like that, but he never screamed when someone had crossed the line. The silent anger was worse. Then you knew you were in trouble and about to be punished for your mistake.

"Crucio." Tom barely cared to see how Mitch was writhing in pain on the floor, as if he had broken every bone in his body. He turned and went out in the hallway where Abraxas waited.

"Get rid of the body when he's dead."

"But Tom. You can't just…"

"I can't? Then tell me what I just did. I'm not in the mood, so if you don't want to join Mitch you will do as I say.

The screams slowly faded and Abraxas turned and walked into the kitchen while Tom disapparated back to the apartment.

When he showed up there a second later, he looked at the clock again and discovered, surprisingly, that it was already eight-thirty. Tom knew that it was too early to go to bed, but since he had killed recently he needed to sleep if he was going to be able to be at the shop the next day. He fell asleep almost before he had put the head on the pillow.

He woke up the next morning as well and followed the same routine as he had done the day before. Like he always did in the mornings.

The day passed by like the day before this one, except John didn't show up today. Although he was used with nothing happening at work. After sweeping the floor and locking the door he apparated back to his apartment.

He sat down in an armchair with a Dark arts book in his knees. He had just started to read it when the door knocked. Tom sighed and carefully hid the book again before opening the door.

Outside there stood a man from the ministry with his hands on Johns shoulders.

"Good day. My name is Mr. Simons and I would like to speak with you about this young man. May I come in?"

Tom let them in reluctantly and showed them to the living room where they sat down in the sofa.

"John, are you alright?" Tom was once again surprised over how nice he seemed to be against the boy. He never meant to ask if he was alright, but there was something odd about him.

"I have to ask you to listen carefully. I already know what you're going to say and it's just a waste of time confirming it." Mr. Simons sighed loudly and Tom nodded silently.

"Well. It's like this. Do you remember your uncle? I presume that you do. A couple of years ago he made a woman pregnant. He raped her, you see. I don't know why, or if he even meant to do it, but the child got to live. Without Morfin of course, since it could be dangerous for the child. Therefore, we had to move them and make sure that Morfin would never find them no matter how hard he tried. We placed them here. In Diagon Alley. Morfin never found them and I'm not even sure if he ever tried. Just yesterday, we found the boy's mother dead close to Knockturn Alley. Then we had no idea of where the boy was and we were, of course, very worried. Later a man came in with a small boy."

"I know. He walked into Borgin and Burkes yesterday so I asked a _friend _bring him to the ministry in case something had happened." Mr. Simons didn't seem to notice how Tom pronounced the word friend.

"Good, but I asked you not to interrupt."

"I'm sorry." It felt weird using the words, but he realized that he had to, for his reputation.

"Well, where was I...? Yes of course. He left the boy at the ministry and left almost immediately, Of course we recognized the boy and were very happy about seeing him alive and well. Yes, and the rest you have, of course, figured out yourself."

"Do you mean that the boy that came into the shop yesterday? John. Is actually my cousin?"

"That is exactly what I mean, and since you're his only living relative we thought that maybe you would have the possibility to take care of him. Only for a couple of weeks for a start and if it doesn't work, we will send him to an orphanage."

Orphanage. The horrible place where no one should be forced to be at. If you lived in an orphanage, you were weak. You had no parents who could take care of you. That was what Tom thought when he heard what Mr. Simons said.

"He can stay here for as long as he wants. However, I work during the days but I know someone he can stay at then." Tom knew that Abraxas was home during the days and after a little chat with him, he wouldn't mind taking care of John at the daytime.

"Let's say that then. Good bye John." Mr. Simons seemed very reluctant of leaving John with Tom, but he realized that he had no other choice.

"Good bye Mr. Simons." John waved at the man when he disappeared down the stairs.

Only seconds after that Mr. Simons had disappeared Tom looked at John who looked back. Both with the same cruel expression. John's nice look had changed totally and for a moment, Tom recognized himself in the young boy. Maybe that was the reason Tom had become so affected by the boy in the shop the day before. It could also be because they were related, but Tom wasn't sure. The last time they met John had been nice and gentle. Far from what he was now. Maybe he had pretended in the shop. Maybe not. He didn't say anything but looked at Tom sourly like he was a complete nut-head.

"Come with me." Tom grabbed Johns arm and apparated them to Abraxas.

As usual, he didn't care about knocking and walked straight inside with Johns hand in his own as Voldemort dragged him upstairs and into a dark room.

"Wait here. I'll be right back."

John nodded slowly, but Tom wasn't sure he could be trusted just yet. He decided to find Abraxas as fast as he could and then walk back to John before John did something he wasn't supposed to do.

Tom found Abraxas in the kitchen. He was sitting around the kitchen table, playing cards with another couple of death eaters. He mumbled an excuse, got up, and followed Tom into the living room.

"We're having a problem."

"What? What happened?"

"Do you remember the boy in the shop?"

Abraxas nodded and Tom continued.

"Apparently, he's my cousin. My uncle obviously got a child before his death. This can complicate things and I don't know what to do with him, I have an idea and I'll share it with you later."

"I think you should tell him about us. If you really are related then maybe you're not so different. I mean, both of you gets pissed when you don't get what you want."

"How do you know?"

"Jonas told me when he had left the kid at the ministry. Don't ask me how he knew because that I don't know. If it's important you have to ask him about it."

"It doesn't matter. Come I'll let you meet him."

They walked upstairs together to the room where Tom had left John. Unbelievable enough, he was still there with the same cruel look.

"John. This is Abraxas." He let them get to know each other before pulling Abraxas away to be able to speak with him without interruptions.

"You're home during the days, yes?"

"Yes, my lord, but what's that got to do with…" Then he understood. "No, no and no. I won't do it. He's your problem, not mine."

"Yes. That's exactly what you're going to do. You will take care of John when I work and if he's hurt in any way, you're the one to get the blame for it."

"Forget it, Tom. I already regret everything I've done for you. Don't make me regret this as well."

"I don't like your tone Malfoy and you know that. If you don't want me to put you under the Cruciatus curse you will do as I say. Think about what happened with Mitch yesterday. Agreed?"

"Yes, my lord." Abraxas swallowed tightly and looked down on the floor.

"Good."

Abraxas walked out of the room, ashamed, and Tom heard the steps when he walked down the stairs.

Voldemort turned to John again and looked at him without saying a word. Finally, he sighed and reached his hand against John, who took it.

Only the second later they showed up in Toms apartment at almost the exact spot that they had apparated from before.

"Where am I supposed to sleep?" The voice was so measly that Tom looked at the little boy with pity in his eyes.

Tom quickly conjured a bed and shot it against the wall.

"You can sleep there. At least as a start. We'll see what happens later. Make yourself at home."

"Thank you for letting me live with you. I knew you would understand."

"Understand what?""

"Nothing. Just something mom told me dad said all the time."

"What did Morfin say?" Now Tom was very curious.

"That you are very naiveand that you're only a half-blood while I'm a pureblood."

Tom grinded teeth in pure anger. John just laughed.

"I am the descendant of Salazar Slytherin. How dare you speak to me in such manor?"

"But both my parents are pureblood and I belong to the Slytherin line as well. It makes me worth more then you."

"How did your mom die?"

The question was so sudden the John froze. Tom cheered inside for finally shutting him up.

"Answer me." He used the commanding voice and John made a jump backwards in fear.

"She was killed." The answers was fast and Tom could he how Johns eyes became tear-filled.

"I know that much, but by whom?"

"I-I don't know. It was dark and he wore a mask.

"What kind of mask?"

"One that covers the whole face. I don't know. It was dark and I didn't see very much. It's just something I remember very clearly. The man had a tattoo on his left arm. A skull and a snake." John spoke very fast and Tom really had to endeavor to hear what he said. He smiled when he heard the last part.

"You mean this mark?" Tom pulled a drawing out of the drawer and John backed.

"No. It can't… You can't…" He left the sentence unfinished and looked terrified at Tom.

"That would be correct, but if it helps I had nothing to do with your mother's death. She was probably just in the way."

"What is the mark?"

"My followers call it the dark mark. Quite fitting actually. They call themselves death eater and me The Dark Lord so I guess it evens in the end.

"Why didn't you want them to take me to an orphanage?"

"Because I know what kind of hell it is. Don't think I care about you, but I'm not letting my own relatives end up in an orphanage and experience the same thing as I did.

"Tom, have you ever killed someone?"

"Mm, I have. I killed my father and his parents a couple of years ago. Since then I've been laying as low as I can, but sure it happens that I kill someone from time to time. If I get angry or something like that, or when I'm bored."

"Who was the man we met before?"

"That was Abraxas. He's not as dangerous as he looks if you keep him in check. I'm keeping him in order, though it was easier at Hogwarts. Then he was close to me all the time. It's harder now, when he's further away. "

"Why can't I stay here while you work?"

"You're too young to do that. I am responsible for you and you're not leaving this apartment or Abraxas Manor without my permission. Do you understand that?"

John crossed his arms rebellious and looked cranky at Tom.

"I'm seven. I can take care of myself."

That was something Tom hadn't expected. The boy looked much younger then he was.

"Okay. You're seven, but it doesn't matter. Abraxas will still be given orders about you."

"Why?"

"To make sure you behave and that you don't get hurt. He won't let you outside the gates without me permission. "

"What if he does it anyway?"

"He won't. He knows what will happen then."

"But what if…?"

"There are no buts. I will speak to the death eaters tomorrow and make sure they don't touch you. Now go to bed. It's late."

"But Tom…"

"Not buts. There are three words that I hate. If, but and no. Learn them. I won't stand being questioned every time I speak to you and don't ask as many questions." Tom was annoyed, but somewhere he knew that John had to ask these questions. Every child in the world is curious. Especially in that age.

"Why not?"

"Because I don't like it. If I'm having guests you will be quiet. Understood?" He started to get tired of the boy and still he had only lived there for a couple of hours.

"Yes Tom. Good night."

"Good night John."

TBC...

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**A:N// So, what did you think about John? Not too bad I hope. So, tell me you read. The only reason for me to post this story is for Lady Cathy who is reading, and reviewing. Maybe I would update sooner if someone else reviewed as well. Who knows? Miracles do happen you know. Just tell me that you have at least read it. Doesn't have to be long. A sentence or two. I know you can write that much. Hope to see some reviews soon.**


	6. First day with John

**Thanks again for a wonderful job Erzibeth-Malfoy. I appreciate that you're doing this for me.**

**I also would like to thank Lady Cathy, who has been the only one who's reviewed the story so far, which might tell me how bad I am at this. Anyway. I continue for you Cathy, and for me since I can't just drop things unfinished. Don't worry, this one will be completed as soon as possible. I only have like 16 and a half chapter left to translate and I'll have lots of time this weekend.**

**For those who read this I would like to inform you that I've updated my profiles with a bit of future writing-plans if anyone's interested.**

**Hope you'll like this one.**

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**C****hapter 5: First day with John**

Tom woke up the next morning and stared up at the ceiling. It was only four-thirty and he didn't have to leave for another hour. He looked at John, who was sleeping on the other side of the room. Tom snorted and turned off the clock so it wouldn't ring and wake him up.

He walked into the kitchen and sat down at the kitchen table with a soup-plate with Cornflakes in it. Apparently, it would be profitable he had heard. Not that he cared, but he had to eat something.

"Good morning." Tom quickly turned around to see John stand in the doorway, staring at him.

"How long have you been awake?"

"Dunno. A couple of minutes maybe." John tried to smother a yawn.

"Get dressed and get something to eat. I'm taking you to Abraxas in about an hour."

"I don't want to."

"Do as I say." Tom returned to his breakfast and skimmed though yesterdays newspaper. He smiled when John sat down on the other side of the table and grabbed some Cornflakes. There they sat, observing each other while the sun rose.

About an hour later they were finished and before John had any chance of reacting Tom grabbed his arm and apparated them away.

The second later, they were standing in front of Abraxas, who was clearing the table.

"I don't understand why you don't get yourself a house elf to do that. You're acting like a muggle."

"I know. I just haven't had the time."

Tom snorted and let go of John who rubbed his wrist.

"When are you coming back?" Abraxas turned around to put something in the fridge.

"I don't know. I have a meeting today so I guess pretty late."

"You have to leave?" John looked at him with tear-filled eyes.

"Yes I do. Stop nagging."

"Can't I come with you then?"

"I've said no." This was about the twentieth time he asked, since breakfast.

"But…"

"No!" he bellowed and John gave a jump and silenced.

Tom turned and walked out in the quiet hallway. He stopped and looked around, as he was waiting for someone. Abraxas understood the hint and immediately followed. John tried to follow as well, but a hard look from Tom made him stay in the kitchen.

"You shouldn't be so hard on him. He's just a child." For once, Abraxas sounded worried.

"Ignore it. Do you remember what I said yesterday?"

"Of course. How could I ever forget?"

"Then you know the deal. Oh, and one more thing. If he is left alone, for even a second you're the one to get the blame. He's not leaving the area and if he's hurt…"

"…I'm the one to get the blame. I know. You told me yesterday. So, you do care about him?"

"Silence Abraxas. That's enough."

"Forgive me my lord."

"See you tonight." Tom ignored Abraxas, who nodded and opened the door.

Tom walked for a while before apparating to Borgin and Burkes. He spent the day for everything usual, or technically, it was rather unusual, but still. Tom didn't care as long as he was paid for it.

At one o'clock, the door opened and a hooded man entered the shop. Tom snorted, grabbed a sweeper and started careless to sweep the floor. The man looked around and walked slowly to the counter.

"Hello! Mr. Burke?"

"He's not here. He traveled to Spain a couple of days ago", Tom answered in a low voice and spun around.

"He knew I would come by today", the man spat.

"Well, there's nothing I can do about it. If there's anything you need, you can talk to me."

"You? A shop assistant? What makes you think I will tell you anything?"

Tom leaned the sweeper against the wall and slowly confronted the man.

"What's your name?

"Andrew. Andrew Johnson."

"Okay, then listen very carefully Andrew. If you ever speak to me in that tone again, I will personally make sure it's the last thing you do. You understand?"

"You? I didn't know you worked here." Andrews's voice trembled and he slowly moved backwards, towards the door.

Tom smiled and walked behind the counter.

"Was there anything you wanted or did you just come here to mock me?"

"No, of course not. I didn't mean to mock you. I-I didn't know. I apologize." Johnson continued to move against the open door, but Tom made it close with a wave of his wand.

"What are you doing?"

"What does it look like I'm doing? I'm preventing you from leaving."

"Yes, I see that, but why?"

"Because I need your help with something."

"I refuse." Andrew turned around and didn't even have time to put his hand on the door knob before he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"You know. I don't like disobedient people. It just doesn't feel good."

"I see."

"Good. Then you'll help me", Tom commanded.

Andrew tried to protest, but Tom didn't care and walked out to the layer to get something.

"This package needs to be delivered to Cygnus Black. Do you know where he lives?"

Andrew nodded and sighed when he realized he had no choice. "He lives only a couple of blocks from myself."

"Good. And one more thing. I will know if that," he pointed at the package, "hasn't been delivered in an hour."

Andrew disapparated and Tom sat down on the chair behind the counter, picking up a newspaper from the floor. There was nothing else valuable that happened at the rest of the day. Some customers, but nothing big. Jonas had confirmed that Andrew had delivered the package to Cygnus and had once again heard that there were no improvements in finding Henryson. This made Tom slightly angry, but he could always take it out on a disobedient death eater later.

The clock said it was around 8pm when Tom came back to the Malfoy Manor. Then he had had a meeting with a couple death eaters and moreover met Cyngus to discuss some pressuring matters with him as well.

"Tom, you're back!" John came running against him when he showed up.

"Yes I am. Everything went well I presume?" Tom was actually too tired to care, but still asked the inevitable question.

"Well…" John looked anxiously around, as if he expected someone to interrupt him.

"Really? Did anything happen?" Tom was suddenly fully awake and looked strictly at John.

"Not really. I went with Abraxas to Diagon Alley because he needed something for the wedding."

"Diagon Alley? I told you that you under no circumstances were allowed to leave the mansion without my permission."

John nodded shamefully and looked down on the floor.

"You have everything?" Tom asked angrily

"N-no."

"Then go and get it and wait for me by the door. I'll be right back."

John nodded again and Tom quickly paced to the kitchen.

"Didn't I tell you to make sure he didn't leave the house?!"

Abraxas got up from the chair with a yank and faced Voldemort.

"Yes I know, but I had to…" Abraxas silence when he realized it would lead nowhere to come with excuses.

"Crucio!" Tom made the pain go away almost as quickly as it came.

"I'm sorry my lord. I never meant to question your orders."

"If I tell you clearly that he is not supposed to leave the house and you still bring him out. Doesn't that mean you're questioning my orders?"

"Yes my lord I do, forgive me." Abraxas sank down on his knees, kissing the hem of Tom's robes.

"You of all people should know that I don't forgive. Crucio!"

Abraxas screamed. Screamed as if he was on fire, like every bone in his body were broken, as if he was being torn into pieces alive. Tom made it last longer this time. He smiled. A vicious and vindictive smile. He ended the curse and left Abraxas unconscious on the floor before walking back to the front door where he found a terrified child waiting for him.

"Come on." Tom grabbed John arm and apparated them to his apartment.

"Do you have any idea of what might happen if you ever question what I say again?"

John slowly shook his head and walked towards his bed. Tom grabbed his shirt collar and pulled him back.

"Sit down and I'll tell you." John did reluctantly as he was told and Nagini slithered up on his knee.

"It's like this. You see, I'm trying to create a world without mudbloods and muggles and there are people who don't like that and is doing anything to prevent that from happening. Those people would without a doubt try to get you and then kill you. Since you're my cousin I don't want that to happen. You understand that?"

"Yes. I'm sorry Tom, I didn't know."

"Of course you didn't know, but know you do. I'm only doing this to protect you, you see. You are more vulnerable then you think. Now off to bed. It's late."

"I understand Tom, but I can defend myself better then you think. If you only gave me a chance to show it."

"A chance?"

John nodded expectant.

"As you wish. You'll have your chance, but not now. You'll have to wait until I have time."

"I'm going to defend myself against you?" John looked surprised at Tom, who quickly shook his head and sighed.

"No, but I want to keep you alive and I don't really trust my death eaters yet."

"Okay. Can I practice tomorrow at Abraxas?"

"Sure, why not. I'm sure Abraxas lets you borrow his basement if I ask him."

"You mean order?"

"You're a quick study. Now off to bed. You'll need your powers if you're going to have any energy to practice tomorrow."

John nodded, changed and crawled down in bed.

Tom did the same and only seconds later both of them were in a deep sleep.

Only an hour later Tom woke up again. He had had a weird dream. He had heard Melinda speak to him, but he couldn't understand what she was saying. It was another language. A language that wasn't familiar to Tom. He had learnt several languages during the years, but when he thought about it, he realized that German wasn't one of them. He didn't know why. He guessed it had just happened for a strange reason. That was a language he had to learn. But not now. Now he didn't have that time.

He walked to the kitchen to get a glass of water before walking back to the bed.

"Master, there's something wrong with your cousin." Nagini came slithering over the floor and Tom picked her up to place her around his neck

"Relax my friend. He's fine."

"No, he's not. Can't you see?" Nagini slithered down from Tom's shoulders and back to John's bed.

Tom walked halfhearted to John bed and looked down on him. He sighed and then turned back to his own bed.

"What's wrong with him master?"

"Nothing. Probably just a nightmare. I'll speak to him in the morning. Okay?"

Nagini slowly slid back to John's bed and made herself comfortable without the slightest idea of what could have happened.

At three o'clock Tom woke up again. This time by John screaming. He was at his cousin's bed in less than a second.

"What's wrong?" Nagini slithered down to the floor and waited.

John writhed and was cold sweating in the bed.

"I don't know, but he needs to go to a hospital right away." Tom quickly got dressed before picking John up and apparated them to St Mungo's.

Nagini was left alone in the apartment where she lay, hissing angrily for not being allowed to follow.

* * *

**A:N/** Did you like it? In that case, don't just sit there smiling at the chapter. I promise that the more reviews I get, the sooner I will publish the next chapter. Thanks again for reading everyone.


	7. News

**So, despite the face that I have gotten no reviews on the last chapter, I will be really nice and post the next one. Once again I thank Erzibeth-Malfoy for Betaing this chapter, which by the way is the longest one I have ever made. I hope you will like it.  
****Chapter six: News**

Tom showed up at St Mungo's half a minute later with John in his arms. He didn't know why he cared as much as he did, but somehow he felt connected to him in some way.

"T-Tom?" stammered John shivering.

"Ssch, be quiet and rest. Everything's going to be fine. Tom put his hand on John's forehead, just to realize that he was boiling hot and soaked in sweat.

A nurse quickly took care of John and asked Tom to remain in the waiting room.

"I'll tell you as soon as we know what's wrong with him", she promised and swiftly left with John.

Tom walked slowly back to the waiting room, where he sat down on ha hard plastic chair, staring into the wall on the other side of the room. There he sat while the hours snailed away.

After four hours, he had still not heard anything and now he really started to get worried. Finally, the doors opened and the same nurse that had been taking John walked over to him.

"Can I see him?" was Toms first question.

"Have a seat", the nurse sighed and Tom did as he was told. She sat down next to him and looked deep into his eyes.

"Mr…?"

"Riddle", finished Tom in a rapid voice.

"Mr. Riddle. I just wanted you to know that everything went as it should, but then…"

"Then what?"

"None of the potions we gave him worked and he's fallen into a coma. We tried to wake him…"

"I want to see him", Tom interrupted with a stern voice.

The nurse flinched, but nodded calmly and Tom followed her while looking at the watch. It was six-thirty and the sun was about to rise high in the sky. Not that he cared, but he would probably have to go back to the shop in spite of all that had happened. Mr. Burked had been very determined on that point.

The nurse showed Tom into a separate room and left him alone.

There in the bed John lay. It almost looked as though he was sleeping. Tom sat down on the edge of the bed and looked at him.

Finally, the door opened and a Healer entered the room. Tom rose and they looked at each other for a while before Tom spoke.

"How long is he going to stay this way?

"I don't know. We have, as you might have been told before, tried several potions, but he's not been responding to any of them, which is unusual even here. I've never seen anything like this before in my life."

"Is there any chance that he's been poisoned?" Tom remembered something from when he was in school. After a little bit of thinking, he had realized that this case didn't differ that much from his beloved Melinda.

"There is a chance, but not very big."

"Why not?"

"Because every poison-expert has looked at him and excluded all kinds of poisoning. Of course there is a chance that they are wrong, but it's not very big since they sounded very secure."

Tom quickly left the room and paced through endless corridors before finally finding the exit door.

He opened it and walked out. Then he apparated back to Abraxas.  
"Tom, it's seven in the morning. What are you doing here?" yawned Abraxas.

"I need to know something. Yesterday, when you brought John do Diagon Alley, did you ever leave him alone?"

"No, of course not. He was with me the entire time." Tom couldn't sense that he was lying and sighed.

"Okay, I believe you. Did he eat anything?"

"No. Or yes, by the way. He had some candy that we bought in Knockturn Alley. Why?  
Has something happened?"

"As a matter of fact something has. John is in a come at St Mungo's."  
"I'm terribly sorry. I should never have given him the candy. It was wrong and I apologize."

Tom didn't care and sat down at the edge of the black kitchen table

"Do you still have the candy?" he asked.

"Sorry, no. He ate everything."

Tom got up and walked away without a word.

"Tom, wait." Abraxas caught up with him at the front door.

"What?" he spat.

"I'm really terribly sorry." Tom felt how Abraxas tried, but he didn't care.

He opened the door and walked away with a quick pace. He didn't apparated until he was outside Abraxas manor. Then he and made his way to the shop he was supposed to open. A little late perhaps, but Mr. Burkes had never told him_ when _to open. He had just told him _to_ open_._

Tom was deadly tired, but somehow he managed to keep his eyes open the entire day.

He didn't allow himself to rest until the evening and the he was so exhausted that he just threw himself at the bed and fell asleep, without even taking his clothes off.  
It was around nine when he woke up again. He sighed, but was immediately happier when he realized it was Friday and he could close the shop early today. The happiness soon disappeared when he remembered that John was still in the hospital.

He quickly changed clothes and madetwo sandwiches, which we ate with haste before apparating back to the shop in Knockturn Alley.

At the stroke of five, Tom closed the shop and apparated to St Mungo's to see if Johns condition had changed. He couldn't say he was surprised when it turned out to be the same as the day before.

He sighed, something that he did more often now. Tom thought he had got rid of that habit, but apparently, he was wrong. Tom realized that if something changed, he would be informed. Therefore, he apparated to Abraxas, as he always did when he had nothing to do and wasn't surprised when there was no one home. He didn't care, but took his time to pry instead.

He was very surprised when he found a small, black bag in Abraxas drawer. Tom couldn't believe this. He hadn't registered that Abraxas lied to him, and after a little bit of thinking Tom didn't think he had done either.　 The bag was carelessly put in the drawer and Tom knew that if Abraxas was the one who had done this, the bag had been a lot harder to find. Therefore there was either anamateur who had done this, or it had been put there for him to find and then blame it all on Abraxas. Nevertheless, Abraxas had told him that John had eaten all of the candy. If that was true, then what was this?  
He heard the front door slam and when he heard steps in the staircase; he quickly hid in the wardrobe. It was Malcovich and he seemed anxious. He opened the drawer and almost tore the clothes apart to find what he was looking for.

"Looking for this? Tom asked and showed him the bag

Malcovich turned and flinched at the sight of Tom, then slowly nodded.

"What is it?"

"Candy", answered Malcovich incoherent.

"Yes, I see that, but what's so special about it?" Tom didn't move an inch and now he started to get irritated, which was never good.

"Nothing, my lord. I swear", Jason objected.  
The front door slammed again and now Tom could hear that it was Abraxas.

"Abraxas, come here for a while, will you?" Tom called and Abraxas replied something inaudible.

He was in the bedroom in a matter of seconds and looked surprised at Malcovich.

"What are you doing here?" Abraxas looked coldly at the other death eater.

"Nothing. What are _you_ doing here?" asked Jason just as cold, with an emphasize on you.

"Well, I live here."

"SILENCE!" shouted Tom and the both men immediately did as they were told.

Malcovich took another step backwards and was about to disapparate when Tom raised his wand a pointed it at him.

"You don't go anywhere unless I say so." Jason sighed silently and did as he was told.

"Abraxas, do you recognize this?"  
"It was the same candy that John ate."

"Good, and then maybe Malcovich can tell me what that candy was doing in Abraxas drawer?"

"I bought it in Knockturn Alley yesterday and then I just threw it somewhere when I had to leave yesterday."

"Such lies. I detest them and I thought you knew that", Tom muttered in a low voice.

"I'm not lying", he protested, but Tom knew better then to believe him.

"You poisoned him, didn't you?"

"Well, since you already seem to know. Yes, I poisoned him.

"Why?"

"I'm not really sure. I wanted to see how it affected his body, and I wanted revenge for what you did to Mark."

"Mark? Right, the creep that killed Melinda."

"Did you know he was my youngest brother?"

"No, I've had it with secret family members that shows up when you least expect it and it was Marks fault that he died. If he hadn't killed Melinda, then I wouldn't have had to kill him."

"You annoyed him and he wanted Melinda for his own."

"If he liked Melinda he could have told me, not killed her."

"He didn't like the mudblood, he just didn't want you to have her", Malcovich added with victory in his voice.

Tom was shaking with fury. How dared he call his beloved Melinda a mudblood?

"Tom, calm down. Getting angry won't help you now. You know you'll only regret it later." Abraxas put a hand on Toms shoulder, but he shook it away.  
Soon after that he grabbed Malcovich's robe and apparated them to something that looked like a decayed mansion.

Jason got out of Toms grip and looked around in the bewildered garden.  
"Where are we?" he tried to keep his voice steady when he asked, but Tom saw right through him.

"Come on. I'll show you something and if you disapparate I will hunt you down and kill you as painfully as I can. Understood?"

The death eater nodded slowly and followed Tom towards the house, the seemed to be abandoned a long time ago.

Tom led them through the garden and into the house and kept walking up the stairs.

"What do you want me to see? Malcovich asked nervous.

"Actually it's nothing. I just want you to see the width of what I can do if you even speak of Melinda in that way again." Tom smiled silkily.

"You mean calling her a mudblood? I only do that because it's true."

"It's not true and you know that. I would prefer if you kept the lies to yourself and only told me the truth in the future. You'll only waste my time."

"Okay, fine. I haven't checked if she's a mudblood or not, but it doesn't matter. In my eyes she's a mudblood and I will keep calling her that and there's no one you can stop me from doing so."

"Really? So where shall we start? Yes, now I know. This way."　 Tom smiled silkily once more and Malcovich started to feel a bit worried.

They walked up another stair before entering something that looked like a bedroom. There they stopped and Jason looked around, feeling uncomfortable.

"Stand at the end of the bed", Tom ordered and the death eater hesitantly did as he was told.

"Good." Tom raised his wand and aimed at Malcoich's chest.

"What are you doing?" Malcovich widened his eyes and froze, but relaxed again when  
Tom lowered the wand again.

"What's wrong with you Tom?" He seemed to relax even more when Tom put the wand back in his pocket again.

"Nothing. Stand still and I'll tell you something. Something I've told no one, but Melinda. Not even Cygnus and Abraxas.  
"What?"

"I killed my father at the exact same spot ten years ago. You stand on the exact spot."  
Toms face crooked into a horrible smile.

Malcovich looked slightly nauseous and moved away quickly.

"May I ask why?"

"He was a muggle", Tom whispered with hatred.

"But that would mean that you're a…"

"A what?" Tom frowned annoyed.

"A h-half-blood", he stuttered.

That had been a mistake. Tom grabbed his throat in a matter of seconds and pushed him up the stonewall. Malcovich kicked and did anything do get Toms hand away so that he could breathe again, but Tom made no sight of wanting to let go.

After a while, he eased the grip and the death eater fell to the floor, trying to breathe.

"You will never speak to me in that tone again. Okay? Good!" Tom turned and left Malcovich alone in the bedroom.  
As expected he came running when Tom was about to leave the garden that had once belonged to his father. Tom stopped, turned and watched how Jason came closer and closer. When it was only a couple of feet left between the two of them, the death eater sank to his knees and crawled to Voldemort to ask for forgiveness. Tom smiled at the fact that he always got as he wanted.

"Forgive me, my lord. I never meant to insult you." Tom didn't think he had ever heard anyone sound as pathetic before and was very proud of what he had accomplished.

"Good, then you'll never do such thing again", Tom stated and watched as Malcovich slowly backed away, still on his knees.

"No, of course not, my lord. I'd never…""

"Good. Get up", Tom interrupted and the man before him immediately did as he was told.

Malcovich stayed in a bowing position and looked down on the ground, as if he was afraid to meet Toms eyes.

"One bad word about Melinda, and I'll make sure it's the last thing you'll ever say. I hope you understand that."

"I understand, my lord", answered Jason monotonically.

"Good. When I think about it, it's probably for the best if you don't talk about her at all."

Jason nodded and stayed silent. 　

"You're dismissed."

Both of them disapparated and Tom showed up in his apartment just in time to let a knocking Cyngus inside.

"Come in and tell me what's happened." Cyngus didn't notice the commanding tone in Toms voice, but meekly answered the question.

"It's Abraxas. He's heartbroken. Apparently he had a fight with his fiancé and she told him that she doesn't love him, but only marry him because her parents want it."

"And what did Abraxas say about that?"

"I'm not sure. He hit her and apparated away."

"Find Abraxas and tell him Alice only said so to hurt him."

"But wouldn't that be a lie? But I guess you have a finger in this game. Don't you?"

Tom smiled and sighed.

"You're right, I do. But it doesn't matter. The most important right now is that Alice and Abraxas get married. How does it go with Druella by the way?"

"Good. A pity that you couldn't make it to the wedding."

"Yes, it really was, but I heard that everything went well." Tom didn't sound very disappointed.

"Yes. Druella's pregnant now. We'll just have to hope everything goes well. There are already some unforeseen complications." Cygnus looked at Tom, as if he expected a follow-up question, but was disappointed.

"Really? We'll have to take it some other time, but right now he have to find Abraxas and Alice."

"Sure. I'll go talk to Abraxas, but I'm sure he'll listen.

"He'll listen to you. I know he does. He always has." Tom apparated to Abraxas cousins house and knocked stubbornly on the door until it was finally opened by a house elf.  
Tom couldn't remember seeing a house elf when he was there last time, but then he hadn't been in the entire house either. Maybe he was somewhere else. Not that he cared. It was, after all, just a house elf.

"Take me to Mr. Watkins", he ordered and the house elf bowed deep before showing him into the kitchen.

"Master has a visitor."

"Who is it James?" He looked up without putting the newspaper away.

"Me", Tom said chilly, which made Mr. Watkins put the newspaper down and rise from the chair.

"Leave us James", he said cold and the elf immediately did as he was told.

"Obedient one, you have. I could need that on my death eaters. Or your daughter perhaps?" Tom finished and Mr. Watkins paled.

"What did she do?" he managed to get out."

"She told her fiancé that the only reason she would marry him was because you had told her to", Tom explained annoyed.

"I'll talk to her", Mr. Watkins promised.

"No, I want to talk to her. You see. They have to get married. Otherwise my plan won't work."

"But if I only could…"

"Are you deaf? I said no. Take me to her", Tom ordered.

Mr. Watkins sighed and did as he was told and they found Alice in her room, crying on her bed.

"Leave us alone", said Tom and Mr. Watkins did as he was told, without objections.  
Tom slowly entered the room and Alice looked up when she heard his footsteps. She paled as well when she saw him, but wiped the tears away and stood up.

"What are you doing here?" she spat, still with watery eyes.

"I'm here to talk to you about Abraxas and the wedding. I heard you had a little disputewith each other.

"Yes, and now I don't have to marry him. It's nice."

"Nice? I promise you that if you don't marry Abraxas your life will be anything but nice. I told you it would ruin my plans if you don't get married."

"I will never marry him in my entire life?!" she screamed and her mother and father came rushing to her.

"Alice, what's the matter with you? Have we taught you nothing about behavior? We don't scream in this house unless it's absolutely necessary", her mother said sternly.

"I apologize for her behavior, my lord. I don't know what's gotten into her." Mr. Watkins tried to apologized, but at the moment Tom was too shocked about Alice outburst that he didn't say a world.

Finally, he got out of the shock.

"Alice. Listen to me. I know that you don't like Abraxas, but sometimes you have to make sacrifices. This is one of the times", Tom said smoothly and looked at her.

"I still don't want to marry him", Alice said, much calmer this time.

Tom sighed annoyed and pulled out his wand.

"Then you leave me with no options", he muttered and aimed the wand at Alice.

* * *

  
**A:N/ By now, I hope that you know that the more reviews I get, the fast I will post the next chapter. So, please review. For those who are interested, I can tell that I have translated 12 chapters this far, and eight are beta-eded, and the epilouge. Hope to hear from you soon.  
**


	8. Only problems

**I'm very disappointed in you all. No reviews in two chapters :( Be happy I still post new chapters. And I will complete this story, don't worry. Even though it would go a lot faster if you told me what you thought about it. Here's chapter seven. I have translated twelve chapters this far, but only the eight first are beta-ed so I don't know when you'll have the next chapter.**

**Thanks again to Erzibeth-Malfoy who is beta-editing my stories**

Chapter Seven: Only problems

"Unless you do as I tell you, I promise to come back here again. And believe me, that is not something either you or your parents want. Next time I will be far less polite than I have been today. You understand that?" Tom spat and lowered his wand.

"I understand, but I still don't want to marry him." Alice looked at him sourly and her mother left the room.

Tom raised him wand-arm so that it was once again pointed towards Alice.

"Master, please rethink this. She will do as you say. I promise." Mr. Watkins now stood between Tom and his daughter, but only received a cold glare back.

"Move aside. I won't kill her. At least not yet", Voldemort spat and Mr. Watkins slowly did as he was told.

There was an incredible silence in the room and you could probably hear a needle falling to the floor if you listened.

"Crucio!" Tom screamed and Mr. Watkins could do nothing but watch as his daughter fell screaming to the floor.

Tom ended the curse almost as fast as he started it and calmly walked over to Alice who was panting on the floor.

"Now, will you do as I say? Or do I have to use the curse again?"

Alice sank her head now in a small nod and leaned on the bed to get up on her feet again.

"Very good. When is the wedding?" Tom asked and turned around.

"Next Saturday, master", Mr. Watkins said and helped his daughter up.

"Good. I look forward to it." With those words he apparated back to the apartment again and sank down on a chair at the kitchen table to wait for Cygnus to come back.

He showed up only a couple of minutes later and sat down opposite to Tom.

"How did it go?" Tom opened The Daily Prophet and slowly skimmed through the first page.

"Well, I'm not really sure. I explained the situation to him, but I'm not sure he believed me or not, but Alice came and apologized so you have to have done something", said Cygnus and leaned back on the chair.

"Good. I don't have time to take care of that right now. I'm worried about John." Tom put the newspaper down and looked at Cygnus.

"I heard he was in a coma."

Tom nodded absent and looked down on the newspaper again.

"You told me Druella was pregnant and that there already were complications. What's happened?"

"I'm not really sure. The Healers won't tell us anything, so we'll just have to wait. If there had been anything serious we would probably have found out by now."

"Yes, probably. Now leave me alone", Tom ordered swiftly.

Cygnus looked a bit taken aback by the words, but rose and walked to the front door, put his hand on the handle and pushed it down to disappear through the wide-open door.  
With a light swing of his wand, Tom made it close again and picked up the newspaper again. Not because there stood anything interesting in it, but mostly to have something to do.

An hour later, there was a knock on the door and Tom opened it with a swing of his wand. It was Malcovich.

"I haven't told you to come here. What do you want?" Tom said icily and stood.

"We have to talk", stated Jason and sat down at the kitchen table.

"I think it's me who's in charge here and when and if we'll talk, it will definitely be me who's deciding that and at the moment I don't have time or energy to do so", growled Tom threateningly and Malcovich slowly got up and left the apartment without a word.  
Tom sighed and slammed the door so hard that there was a loud smack as it closed, before he apparated to Abraxas mansion.

There he walked down to the lake, as he usually did when he was troubled about something. No one would dare to disturb him when he was there. Of course there was exceptions, but Tom knew no one would come there unless it was very important. He realized that it had actually been a very long time since anyone had disturbed him there. Probably because they knew that what they had to say could wait until later.

He heard a branch crack and slowly rose from the green grass.

"What are you doing here?" Tom muttered to the person standing behind him.

"I'm sorry, my lord. I didn't know you were down here. I'll leave immediately", the man mumbled and quickly walked away.

Tom slowly started to walk around the lake and didn't stop until he was halfway around it. Then he stood as close to the edge as possible so he could watch his reflection in the water.

The eyes started to glow red and Tom turned the gaze away. He had never liked the shade of red in his eyes as Voldemort did, but he had been forced to get used to it anyway.  
He kept his walk around the lake and it wasn't long until he bumped into another two death eaters. Both of them his age. They weren't close to him. They had barely seen him before, but as usual, he didn't care and just walked straight towards them. They stopped, turned towards the lake and whispered something to each other.

"What are you two whispering about?" he asked calmly and positioned himself beside them.

"None of your business. It's private", one of the people said. Tom thought his name was Joachim, but he wasn't sure.

Tom was fast to get into his mind and found exactly what he was looking for.

"It's not very nice to whisper about someone superior then you."

"Really, and what rank do you stand in?" the nameless person whispered.

"Don't mind him Simon. Let's go now", said Joachim and started to drag the other guy away from there.

"It's not very nice to leave a conversation with your lord", Tom said high enough for the both men to turn around and look surprised at him.

"You? I don't think so." Simon raised one of his eyebrows and walked away with a rapid pace.

Joachim stayed.

"So you believe me?" asked Tom and walked closer.

He shook easily on his head and turned to catch up with Simon.  
Tom apparated himself in front of them so fast that both of them stopped with a jerk.

"Move aside", said Simon and tried to pass, but Tom stopped him.

"You don't believe me", he stated and pulled his wand out from the pocket.

"No, we don't. Should we?" asked Joachim gently.

Tom started to get more and more irritated on these guys now and aimed his wand towards them. They raised their wands ass well and pointed it at their lord.

"Two against one, take that thing down", said the cockiest of them.

"What makes you think you can beat me? Expelliarmus!" Tom aimed the wand so precisely that Simons wand flew out of his hand and before Joachim had time to do anything about it, he was wand-less as well.　

Voldemort caught them nicely in his and then turned to continue his walk around the lake. Both Simon and Joachim were still frozen with shock for a minute until they realized what had happened and ran after Tom.  
Tom ignored them and instead disapparated to St Mungo's to check up on John. He was very surprised to see a dozen of Healer stand around his bed, so he walked in carefully to see what was going on.

"Excuse me, but what's going on?" he asked loud and he felt how the twelve pair of eyes stared at him.

"Come with me Mr. Riddle", one of the Healers said and Tom followed him out.

"What's going on?" Tom asked again and the Healer sighed.

"Your cousin woke up a couple of hours ago", the Healer said.

"Why haven't I been informed? I want to see him." Tom started to get upset and to be both upset and irritated was never good. At least not when he was it.

"I'm afraid that's impossible Mr. Riddle. You see, he's in a coma again. He seemed better so we reduced the doses. Unfortunately that was a mistake and he quickly got worse again."

"When did he fall back into coma?"

"About ten minutes ago", the Healer said with a sigh and looked at Tom, whose eyes flashed in red.

"Tell me if he wakes up again. This time as fast as he awakens please." Tom turned around and took a couple of steps before apparating to Abraxas mansion.

Both Simon and Joachim stood in the lounge when he came inside and blocked his path.

"We want our wands back", said Simon and reached out his hand.

Tom shoved them aside and walked into the kitchen where he found both Abraxas and Jonas.

"Didn't I tell you to stay at St Mungo's and tell me if something happened?" he hissed to Jonas who immediately stood up.

"I apologize, but it was incredible tiresome and nothing happened so I left a couple of hours ago", Jonas explained.

"Yes, I understood that when I wasn't informed that he woke up", said Tom irritated and aimed his wand at Jonas.

At that exact moment, Simon and Joachim stepped inside the room, but stopped immediately when they saw what was going on.

"He did what?" Jonas exclaimed in a shocked tone.

"He woke up, which was the exact reason why I wanted you to be there. In case, he woke up. I thought I told you", said Tom and now turned towards Simon and Joachim.

"The both of you should know better then to disturb me. Leave us."

"And if we don't want to?" smirked Simon.

"NOW!", roared Tom and both of the young death eaters backed out through the door when they thought about what was going to happen if they disobeyed once more.

Tom put in his mind that they probably believed him now and smiled to himself.

"Crucio", he mumbled silently and watched calmly as Jonas fell, writhing and screaming in pain, down on the floor.

He let it last for a couple of minutes before letting it diminish and looked at Jonas with hatred.

"Now you'll go back to St Mungo's, stay there and inform me if anything happens. Understood?"

"Of course, my lord", he answered and disapparated.

Tom himself walked out to the lounge to have a little chat with Simon and Joachim.

TBC...


	9. An important discovery

**So, since I'm going to Berlin in a few hours, I'll be posting a new chapter now. I hope to have fun there, but there'll be no more updates on this story this week at least. I have ten chapters that are beta-edited and I've sent about six more to my beta. Hope you'll like it and sorry for the slow update. Guess what helps. You're rigt. Reviews:)**

**And thanks again to Erzibeth-Malfoy who is helping me out. Otherwise, my grammar would probably be completely wrong and weird.**

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**Chapter 8: An important discovery**

Tom quickly looked at his watch and discovered, to his great surprise, that it was already ten. Sure, it had been a rough afternoon and night, and as usual, he had gotten nothing to eat. He found Joachim and Simon eavesdropping outside the door. God, they really were childish. Well, maybe he was too, but he at least had the senses not to show it to other people.

"What are you doing?" Tom hissed and both Joachim and Simon turned around to face him.

"Waiting for you. We want our wands back", said Simon and dared to look Tom in the eyes.

Tom looked malicious back and watched Joachim take a couple of steps backwards. He broke the eye contact and walked over to the death eater that had been quiet the entire time.

"What are you doing?" He asked the same question again, but this time he didn't receive a reply at all.

Joachim just turned his head away and looked down on the floor. Tom looked at him with chilly eyes, grabbed his hair and pulled it backwards with such force that Joachim groaned in pain, causing him to look at Tom.

"Look at me when I'm talking to you", he spat and let go of the hair.

The reply came in a small nod and he turned back to Simon, who looked sourly on him.

"Behave and I might give your wands back tomorrow", he said and disapparated to his apartment.

Then it hit him that it was tomorrow he was supposed to meet Sarah. At two o'clock? Did they say two o'clock? Now he became unsure. Well, they probably said two and he usually remembered times. At least he thought so.

After a fast look at the watch, he decided that it was time to go to bed, so he would be alert when he met Sarah. Unfortunately, falling asleep wasn't as easy as he thought and he was squirming a long time in bed before finally falling asleep.

He didn't wake up until nine the next day, which was very unusual for him. He was what you would call an early riser and it was unusual for him to be up after seven, even when it was his day off, but he didn't complain about it. Instead, he went to take a shower. Or at least he was going to when there was a knock on the door, so he put some pants on and went to open it.  
It was none other than Cygnus Black.

"What do you want? I'm meeting Sarah in a couple of hours and I have some important things to do before that, so let it me quick", muttered Tom, but let him in anyway.

"We have some problems."

"Really? What?"

"You probably remember your break-in last week. It was by a man named Jack Smith. Well, the thing is that Abraxas asked me to do some research about him, while he was helping with finding Henryson. The thing is, I found him, or at least I found his father", he started and looked at Tom, who was looking glancing at Nagini who was slithering over the rug to the bed where she lay down and looked at the owl Barny with big, begging eyes.

"Don't touch him. I'll feed you later", he hissed in snake language and Nagini slithered sourly away and lay down under the bed.

He looked back at Cygnus, who started his statement again.

"As I said, I found him. His name's Samuel Smith and apparently very rich. According to some sources he bought the Ravenclaws long lost diadem, which is very weird since the history tells us that's been missing for centuries. I took the liberty of checking up if the story was true and found out that it's actually true that he owns the diadem, so I paid him a short visit. Unfortunately, I didn't find out anything valuable. The good news is that Samuel doesn't know about his son's death, since he's staying on some Island in the Pacific Ocean", Cygnus finished and took a deep breath.

Tom's eyes had been wide-opened at the mention of the diadem and how he felt how his eyes flashed in red. This was good news and he didn't care at all what this Samuel did. Now all that mattered was to get the hands on the diadem and that couldn't be very hard.

"I thought Abraxas said that he didn't find any information on Jack." Tom really had to struggle to keep the calmness in his voice, while speaking.

"Yes, that's correct. That's why I had to search through some records abroad. Of course the name sped up the investigation a bit, but I found an article in the New York's time magazine.

Pure luck, if I may say so." Cyngus voice told Tom that he was getting bored and silenced him with a small nod.

"Well, what can I say? Suddenly I regret killing Jack. He would have been of use right now. I don't care how you got the information, only that you did. Find out everything you can about him. His house, where he spends his vacations, what he does in leisure time, work, wife, children. Everything. I want drawings and detailed descriptions of guards, animals, security system before Monday night", Tom said and rose from the chair.

"But, my lord, there's no chance that we'll be able to get all that information 'til Monday. Two days? You ask for the impossible Tom. A project like this might take weeks, well months. There's not a chance to do this in two lousy days." Now Cygnus rose as well.

"Cygnus, try to understand. I need the diadem and if I can't convince him to give it, or sell it to me, I'll have to steal it and I can't do that if I don't have all information, so just do as I say. Bring anyone you want, apart from Joachim, Simon, Jonas and Abraxas. I have other jobs for them."  
Cygnus sighed when he realized he didn't have any other choice and slowly nodded.

"As you wish", he said and disapparated.

Tom realized in horror that Cygnus had been there a whole hour and went to take a quick shower and get ready to meet with Sarah.

Of course that didn't take very long, but as said before, he wanted to talk to Abraxas and Jonas before meeting her and you never knew how that might end up.

Once he was done he apparated to Abraxas manor, which by the way looked way better than it had done when he had bought it. It didn't take very long to find who he was looking for, laying in a hammock, and being as lazy as ever.

"Wake up. I have a job for you." Tom blew easily in Abraxas ear, and he shot up from the hammock like a rocket.

"Please Tom, don't ever do that again. You're scaring me to death. What do you want me to do?" He seemed to calm down a bit and sat up to give Tom some room to sit down next to him, which he did.

"Well, I'm going to see Melinda's twin sister today", he started but got cut off.

"So that's with the nice gown?"

Tom rolled his eyes and sighed deeply.

"Just be quiet and do as I say. As I said I'm going to see Sarah today and it's very important that no one is disturbing me."

"Of course", Abraxas answered and bowed his head.

"Good. I knew I could trust you. Bring Jonas."

"But, master…?"

"Malfoy. That's and order." Toms word hardened and Abraxas seemed to realize that arguing wouldn't make anything better and nodded before sinking down to his knees.

"As you wish, my lord", he muttered and Toms stood, looked down at Abraxas and snorted before slowly leaving the hammock and Abraxas behind, going towards the pond.

Now all he had to do was to find Jonas and tell him to go with Abraxas, and with some luck, that would go just as easy.

He found the death eater on a bench down at the pond and sat down next to him. Jonas looked at Tom uncomfortably and questioningly.

"I have a work for you", he started slowly and Jonas lifted sig gaze to face Tom.

"What?" he muttered and looked out at the pond again.

"I'm seeing Sarah today and I want you and Abraxas to make sure no one is disturbing us", he said, surprised that Jonas didn't seem to care.

"Okay", he mumbled again and rose to leave.

"Did anything happen?" Jonas stopped, but didn't turn around.

"Nothing that concerns you", he spat and kept walking.

Toms face hardened. How dared he speak to him in such way?

"It concerns me if my followers won't do as I say."

"I'm doing as you say." He didn't stop this time and Tom apparated so that he was blocking Jonas path.

"Don't leave when I'm speaking to you. You might do as I say now. This isn't a hard task, but once it gets harder, you might not do, so tell me what is going on." Tom's voice was cold as ice and Jonas looked back at him with hatred.

"I just found out that both my parents are dead. What do you expect me to be? Happy!?" he screamed and his hatred changed into despair and tear-filled eyes.

"I didn't tell you to be happy, and you're only making it worse by yelling at me. I haven't done anything to your parents." Tom almost screamed back and Jonas looked at him, deeply shocked.

"I'm sorry, my lord. I didn't mean to flare up like that. You're right of course. You're not the one  
I'm mad at", he mumbled in an apologizing way.

"Good, I'm meeting her at two. Make sure to be close. And tell Abraxas as well. I think I might have forgotten to tell him the time."

Jonas nodded and slowly started to walk towards the big house, while Tom once again looked at the watch and apparated back to the apartment.

"Finally. I've been waiting for ages", a voice said, making Tom turn around.

"Cygnus", he stated and sat down at the kitchen table facing his uninvited guest. "May I ask what you're doing here?"

Cygnus got up from the chair without a word, just to sink down at his knees at Toms feet a second later.

"W-we've encountered some problems, my lord", he mumbled inaudible, making Tom raise an eyebrow.

"What?"

"We found Henryson, but he kind of got away again and we didn't have enough time to cast a tracing spell at him."

"You did what?!" Tom rose to fast that the chair rolled over behind him.

"We lost him, my lord", he mumbled and Voldemort noticed that he was shaking with fear."

"I heard that. Who was in charge?" he growled and looked down at Cygnus, who was swallowing a couple of times, before speaking.

"I-I was, my lord", he shook and Tom pulled out his wand.

"You know how much I need that information, and you let him away in spite of that?"

"M lord, please. Forgive me, I never meant…"

"Crucio!" he screamed at watched satisfied how Cygnus was screaming in pain. As if someone was pouring boiling water over him.

Voldemort swished easily with his wand and the screams silenced immediately. Cygnus lay on the floor before him, barely conscious. Tom spat and kicked him before going to comb his hair before meeting Sarah.

It was late and Tom scrabbled some words to Cygnus before apparating to the Three Broomsticks in Hogsmeade.


	10. Emotions

**I'm back from Berlin and still no reviews. I'm very disappointed in you all, but in spite of that I will give you another chapter. Mostly because I want the story to end, which I promise it will do, but then I don't know when I will publish anything new. I had plans before, but that won't be published for so long, and I don't even know if I'll ever start writing. Most of the story is already translated, but I have about six chapters left to translate, and I will translate them. I just need the time. At the moment I don't have that time. I have two tests next week, and a psycology essey to write, and I don't understand anything of it. Since it due to monday I better do it tomorrow. Not that I will understand it better then, but whatever... Hope you'll like this chapter anyway. I know I do.**

**One again thanks to Erzibeth-Malfoy who is beta-ing this fanfiction. Cookie for you.**

**Chapter 9: Emotions  
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Once there, he sat down at a table and looked around. It looked just the way it had done the last time he was there, but maybe that wasn't so odd, since it had only been a week since he was here last.

He looked at the watch. A quarter to two he thought and sighed. Maybe she wouldn't come. Maybe she had forgotten everything. If he only knew how wrong he was.  
Exactly an hour later, the door was opened and Sarah entered the pub. She looked around and smiled when she saw Tom sitting alone in the corner. She walked closer and he smiled towards her. He rose and pulled out the chair for her before sitting down to face her.

"Thanks", she said and looked down on the table.

"You're welcome. Do you want something?" he asked and nodded towards the bartender.

"A butterbeer wouldn't be wrong", she said and looked him in the eyes.

"Of course. Wait here for a moment." He rose and walked over to the bartender, said something and then returned to the table with two glasses of butterbeer in his hands. He gave one of them to Sarah.

He sat down at the chair again and looked at her. It was really scary how much she looked like Melinda. Once again, he came to think of John, who was in a coma. He had to visit him soon. Especially now when Jonas wasn't there.

"So, how've you been?" he started and Sarah sighed.

"Honestly, it hasn't been that bad. Ever since we met I haven't been able to stop thinking about her."

"Shhh, we're not talking about her today. I promised you that."

"I know, but I haven't met anyone who felt like this for her, so I have to ask you something. Please be honest."

"Okay, I promise", he answered without really knowing what he promised her.

"Do you like me because I look like her?"

Tom froze. Did he? He didn't know. Sure, she looked like her in many ways, but the personalities were different. Of course, Melinda's personality had become darker since they started dating, but he didn't know if it was because they were twins that he liked her too.

"I don't know", he answered and sighed.

"Oh, okay. I just wanted to be sure because I think you're very sweet." she blushed and looked at him.

He smiled and leaned towards her and gave her a light kiss. It felt good. Almost like kissing her.

They sat there for hours, just talking. Around the afternoon, he probably knew her as well as he knew Melinda. He didn't know why, but she made him remember something. Something that he had tried to forget since the day she died. He wasn't even sure of what it was. He had two Horcruxes now, and if everything went as planned, there would be another one before the end of next week. He knew what object he wanted. The hard part was to find it, but with some luck would Henrysons information help. If only his followers could find him without screwing up.

"I think I have to go now. I'm going to see my parents in Germany tomorrow and I want to be rested", Sarah started and he nodded.

She kissed his cheek and disapparated very quickly without a word. Tom stayed and leaned back to think. He remembered all the good times with Melinda. All the times they had stayed up late to talk. All the times he had comforted her when she was sad, like the time when Rose died, but she probably never remembered that anyway. All the times they had sneaked out late at night just to take a walk in the forbidden forest. When he had shown her the Chamber of Secrets. Everything was like a flashback in his head.

He blinked a couple of times and all pictures were gone and he realized that he would never regain what he'd lost. He would revenge her death. He had sworn it a long time ago and he would never give that promise up. He rose and apparated back to his apartment where he had left Cygnus unconscious earlier in the day. He really didn't have the energy to deal with that now, but just sent Cygnus away with an order to find Henryson as soon as possible. Besides that, he also reminded him about the information on that Smith guy. It was important. Everything had to go as planned.

Only two minutes later, he was at St. Mungo's to visit John. Nothing had changed. The healers had done everything they could, so now all he could do was to wait. He would find an antidote. This time he wouldn't be too late. He looked at the flowers in one of the corners. They were almost dead. Tom mumbled a spell and the flowers got new life again. He knew that if he hadn't found the antidote before the flowers died again, it was too late.

He left again. This time to a library. He had to find an antidote, no matter what. He was walking there for a long time before finding what he was looking for. A section about books with all kind of antidotes. He picked a couple of books down from the shelf and sat down at a close table. Then he started to read. While he was looking, he memorized every antidote, every healing spell in case he would need it later.

The watched showed nine when the librarian came to tell Tom that they were closing. He borrowed the books and planned to keep reading back at the apartment, but first he had to find out how all things went with Henryson and Smith. Something that Cyngus probably didn't look forward to. Not Abraxas either for that matter. He had started to get annoyed now. Mostly because Tom used his house as a base.

He disapparated and showed up before Cyngus only seconds later. He smirked and Cyngus immediately kneeled before him.

"Get up. I don't have time for your pathetic excuses right now", he muttered and Cyngus quickly stood again. "Where's Abraxas?"

"In the kitchen, my lord." Was the answered and Tom motioned for Cyngus to follow him and walked towards the kitchen.

As expected, they found Abraxas there. He seemed to go through some papers, but immediately stood when he spotted Tom.

"Anything new?" Tom asked without caring about Cygnus.

"Perhaps- I'm not really sure, my lord. I might have found something, but only temporarily in that case", Abraxas answered and looked at Tom, insecure.

"That's good. Cygnus I want to see you tomorrow. In the afternoon. Come by when you feel like it. You're dismissed."

Abraxas seemed to relax a bit more when he noticed that Tom wasn't mad at him. Tom sat down on one of the chairs and Abraxas sat down next to him

"Any problems today?"

"A bit, but nothing that couldn't be fixed. You disappeared so quickly today that we didn't have time to tell you."

"Tell me what?" Against his will, Tom started to get interested.

"There was a man looking for you today. Really annoying actually. He said that he knew something about your cousin."

"Did he tell you how I can get in contact with him?"

"No, but he wanted you to have this." Abraxas put his hand in his pocket and gave a note to his master.

Tom quickly took it and unfolded it.

For Tom Riddle; aka Lord Voldemort.

I heard what had happened to Morfin's son John, and I want to help you. There's a poison. A deadly poison, the same that killed your girlfriend. I'm sure you've heard of it. There's an antidote, but it has to be found before it's too late. You have around ten days. I presume that you've heard of the book "Antidotes and healing spells." Page 354, there you'll find everything you need to know. If you don't believe me you can just ignore this, but I recommend you not to do so, considering that he'll die unless you do this.

…

Tom put the letter on the table and looked at Abraxas, who looked back.

"Have you read it?" Abraxas shook his head innocently and looked easily nauseous.

"Of course not. I'd never…"

"No, perhaps not. Have you heard about the book Antidotes and healing spells?"

"Of course. It's a very famous book. It's in the library downstairs if you want to…" started Abraxas, but were once again cut off.

"Show me."

Abraxas stood and slowly walked out through the door and down the stairs to the library with Tom following.

"Here you are", said Abraxas and pulled a book out from one of the shelves.

Tom took it, turned his attention to page 354, and started to read.

"This can't be correct", he mumbled and put the book away when he had finished.

"What can't be correct?" asked Abraxas and looked at Tom, very surprised.

"The antidote can't be this simple. In that case Melinda would have been able to survive", he explained and looked down on the book again.

"So it's simple to make?"

"Very simple. The hard part is to get a hold of all the ingredients." He rose, grabbed the book and hurried out of the library. Tom was already halfway up the stairs when Abraxas caught up with him.

"Where are you going?" he asked and hurried after him.

Tom didn't answer the questing and kept walking up the staircase. He knew exactly who he would send to get the ingredients he needed and it wouldn't cost him a galleon.

**TBC...**

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**Hope to get a review of this chapter anyway if someone will ever read it.**


	11. Tears and new decisions

**Still dissappointed in you guys, but since I'm sick I will give you another chapter. I can tell you that those who haven't had migrane has been very lucky. Took som painkillers, but they doesn't really work :( Anyway. Here's the new chapter, also beta-ed by Erzibeth-Malfoy. Give her a big applause will ya? Last chapter beta-ed and I don't know when I'll get the other ones back, so you'll just have to suffice with those I have already published. **

**Here's the new chapter. Hope you'll like it.**  


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Chapter 10: Tears and new decisions**

Give me a reason to believe that you're gone  
I see your shadow so I know they're all wrong  
Moonlight on the soft brown earth  
It leads me to where you lay  
They took you away from me but now I'm taking you home

I will stay forever here with you  
My love  
The softly spoken words you gave me  
Even in death our love goes on

Some say I'm crazy for my love, Oh my love  
But no bonds can hold me from your side, Oh my love  
They don't know you can't leave me  
They don't hear you singing to me

Even in death, by Evanescence.

He found the ones he was looking for in the living room. Joachim and Simon.

"Come here", he ordered, but only got a nasty grin back.

"Give me a reason", said Simon and smirked.

Now Tom had had enough. Before they had at least done as they were told. Sure, Joachim might still do that sometimes, but never when he was with Simon. Maybe he should kill Simon just to see what would happen.

"Crucio!" he screamed and before someone had the chance to react on the fact that Tom had aimed the wand, Simon lay screaming on the floor.

Just two minutes later, he flicked the wand and the screams suddenly stopped. Tom looked coldly at Simon, who lay exhausted at the floor.

"Come here, I said." Tom looked at satisfaction how Simon actually came closer to him. Joachim just stood and watched how his cousin slowly crawled closer to Tom.

"This is the deal. I'm going to need some things and I want you", he nodded towards Joachim, "to find them for me. I will need them at six tomorrow morning", he said and gave a note to Simon.

"Whatever you want, my lord", answered Simon and looked down on the floor.

"Good. Leave." Tom threw them their wand against each of them and they grabbed them hardly, before disapparating.

"It looks like you've finally made them obey you", said Abraxas stupidly and Tom sighed.

"Yes Abraxas. For now at least.

Tom apparated back to his apartment and looked down at the borrowed books.

"There was a man here before, master", a voice hissed and Nagini slithered behind him.

"Who?"

"I don't know, master. I've never seen them before. At least he left a book here."

Tom immediately looked down on the table, just tom find the book "Antidotes and healing spells", laying there. He sighed when he realized who the man had been. It hit him that he really would want to meet the man some day.

He stared down at the book before slowly getting undressed and went to bed. Just in case, he asked Nagini to wake him up at five. Then he would have all the ingredients at six and the potion would be finished at seven. At least if everything went as planned. Of course, he had given Simon and Joachim about three hours margin too, so they really didn't have to be back until nine, but of course he hadn't told them that.

As it was told, he was awakened at five in the next morning. Very tired of course, but that never stopped him before. He took a quick shower and sat down at the table with a sandwich and today's newspaper and seriously thought of sending Sarah a letter. He thought about it for a long time, and finally decided that it was a bad idea and kept reading the paper.

Exactly at six, there was a knock on the door and Tom opened it with a light flick on his wand. Ax expected it were Simon and Joachim.

"Did you get everything?"

Simon nodded and gave Tom a paper bag.

"Answer when you're spoken to. I thought I'd taught you that", said Tom and picked all things up from the bag.

He sighed and shrugged when he still didn't get any answer.

"There are some things missing", he stated. Mostly to let them get a chance to explain themselves, but they remained quiet. "I said I needed all things a six, which was five minutes ago, You're late.

"It was everything we could find", Joachim muttered and looked from Tom to Simon and back again.

"I'll need the rest at eight. You've found the hard things. That's good, but I guess you never thought of going to a regular store and buy the rest of it. Not? I thought so. Now leave." Tom threw them out again and leaned towards the door. At least it was a start, he thought and sighed.

He sat down at the bale and decided to actually write Sarah a letter. If he didn't he knew he'd regret it. He felt something when she was with him, he didn't know what it was, but he had felt the same thing when he was around Melinda. Some people said it was live, but he wasn't sure. He'd been raised without love and he could survive an eternity without it too. It was a sight for weakness, and he wasn't weak. He snorted once and grabbed a bit parchment and a pen.

Dear Sarah

It was very nice to meat and I hope I'll see you again. I don't know why, but it feels like at I want to is to be close to you…

He looked down on the newly written, wrinkled his forehead and scrunched the paper before throwing it in the trash bin and started over.

Sarah,

It was nice to meet you and I hope I'll see you again…

It was almost the same again. Way to emotional. He scrunched that too and started over again.

When the clock strokes eight he probably had made 50 attempts to write a letter and failed every times. There was knock on the door and Tom presumed it was Joachim and Simon who came back.

He opened the door slowly and blinked a couple of times when he saw who was standing outside the door.

"Jonas? What are you doing here? I told you to stay with John and only tell me of something actually happened."

"I know. May I come in?" Tom had never heard him so gloomy before.

"What happened?" He started to get worried now. What if he hadn't had as much time as he thought he had.

"It's John. He's dead."

"Oh, I see." It had been as he thought; now he didn't need the ingredients any more.

Tom didn't really know how much he had really liked John until he was gone. Now there was only a big black hole left in his stomach. The same hole that he had felt when Melinda died. It was incredible how much you could miss someone. He sent Jonas away and told him to tell Simon and Joachim not to disturb him.

Once alone a single tear started to fall down his cheek and he wiped it way, annoyed. The tear was followed by several more and he didn't even care to wipe these ones away. He hadn't cried when Melinda dies, not even after all the people he had killed. It felt good to let all anxiety out now. He had a meeting later that day and then he needed to be pulled together. He couldn't just sit and cry in one of the meetings.

As the hours flew by the tears were replaced with hatred. It was Malcovich's fault that John was dead and he would regret that deeply. He would beg for the torture to stop. He would regret even putting a finger on John. Jason would ask him to be merciful, but he wasn't going to listen. All anxiety, all hate would be taken on him, and since he was related to the same person that had killed Melinda would this be a day to remember. No one would ever question him again. Not when they saw what he planned to do with Jason Malcovich. Tom smiled, not a warm and gentle smile. This wasn't welcoming at all, rather an angry smile, a traitorous smile. A smile that would bring every one of his followers to their knees before him.

Voldemort sighed. It was a long time since he was this mad. He hadn't even been this angry when Rose was alive and she had been both annoying and impossible. He summoned Abraxas, something that didn't happen very often. Usually he apparated to his manor when he wanted something, but not this time.

"You called", a voice said and Abraxas showed up behind him.

Tom nodded silently and Abraxas looked at him, surprised.

"We need to talk…"

"Of course. Whatever you…" Abraxas cut himself off when he sat Tom shaking his head.

"Not about that. Just talk."

"What happened Tom?" Now he started to get really worried.

"John's dead."

"I heard. Jonas didn't seem to care, and I don't think he'd ever understand. He doesn't know you the way I do."

"No, he doesn't and I don't think he'd ever understand. You remember Rose and the Chamber of Secrets, yes?"

"Yes, who would ever forget?" said Abraxas calmly.

"I wonder who I'd been if I'd never found out who I am, the heir of Slytherin. How it had been if I'd never told the basilisk to kill Rose. If I hadn't modified Melinda's memory. How it had been if she was still alive."

"You would probably be very different from what you are today. Maybe you'd be a bit more emotional, but that might depend on your childhood."

Tom nodded before deciding to tell him about his thoughts. If this were going to work, he'd need Abraxas help. Preferably Cygnus as well, but he had changed in such way that it was probably impossible for him to help out of free will.

During the time he told he sometimes how Abraxas gasped for air or nodding assent.

"You're probably right. It has only been a matter of time and you know I'm on your side and I know that Cygnus are too, even if he doesn't show it at the moment. I can make him think a bit, if that's what you want of course."

Tom nodded lamely and Abraxas stood, bowed and disappeared. After that little conversation, he felt a lot better and knew exactly what he needed to do. Everything would take place after he'd captured Henryson and had his information. Then he would probably do all of his Horcruxes and disappear for a while. Now he knew where three of the objects he wanted were and he already had two. That was five. He would find the rest, if he would so visit every city in the world to find two more things. He promised himself that.

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**Can't you do me small favour this time and give me a review or something. Remember that I am sick today so it would really lighten my day, especially since I missed a test in school today. Take care.**


	12. Home at Cygnus

**So, no replies for ages, but I still publish this since I really need to finish every story I write and maybe that's good in some ways. Since no one have replied this I guess you don't read this as well, but I'll still write for those who will find this story later on. Thanks again to Erzibeth-Malfoy for beta-ing my story. I have only translated 16 chapters out of 24 + an epilogue which I have already translated and I have really no time before christmas now, but I don't think you'll care very much since I doubt anyone'll read this. Hope you like it.**

**Chapter 11: Home at Cygnus**

Two hours later Tom lay in his bed, wondering for a long time at this before finally deciding to cancel the meeting later that day. Sure, a meeting would be good, but he didn't think he could handle it. It was one thing to lose Melinda and something else to lose John. In spite of the fact that he wanted John to disappear, they still belonged together in some way. They were family. Sure, they could drive each other crazy, but deep inside Tom knew that they loved each other. Loved, that was something he hadn't thought of in a very long time. He hadn't loved someone since the day he lost Melinda, and he knew that it would be hard for him to do so again. Sure, he liked Sarah, but not in the way he had liked Melinda.

There was a knock on the door and Tom slowly walked to open it. Abraxas was back.

"May I come in?" he asked slowly and Voldemort nodded.

"I thought you'd talk to Cygnus?"

"I know, but he wasn't home. A house elf told him they had gone to St. Mungo's. Something with Druella. Probably miscarriage."

"What a pity", said Tom without a hint of sympathy. "How's the wedding going by the way?"

"Pretty good. Alice parents are taking care of it. Saturday at one. You're more than welcome."

"Who's coming?" Tom nodded and they sat down at the kitchen table.

"Several death eaters, my family, Alice family, you, and some people Alice knew at Hogwarts as well. Why?"

"Curiosity. Is Dumbledore coming?"

"I didn't invite him because of what you think of him and I don't want any fights, but I don't know if Alice did. She was talking about it, but I'm not sure if she decided to do so."

Tom mumbled something inaudible and nodded again.

"Look it up and check if there's someone else of the teachers from Hogwarts coming."

"Of course. You've heard about Dumbledore I presume?"

"That he's become headmaster, yes I've heard that. Now leave." Abraxas bowed easily and quickly walked out through the front door.

Tom sighed and leaned back at the chair. He had hoped to get some information on Samuel today. The deadline was tomorrow and he still hadn't heard a sound from Cygnus. He considered visiting him today and put some pressure on him, but then decided that it was a bad idea. It would probably scare him to death and then he would never get the information he needed.

He spun his wand around, mumbled something and a bit parchment and a pen came flying to him and was put on the table before him. It was best to keep away from Sarah now. It was stress as it was and if he would see her too it would just get even worse.

Sarah;

I'm terribly sorry not to tell you this eye to eye, but it's for the best that I don't see you anymore. I understand if this upsets you, but it's for your own good. I truly hope that you understand. I can't tell you why, but it would be too dangerous for you to be close to me at the moment. I might contact you when the danger has subsided, by then I don't know how much I've changed. I don't even know if I'll ever contact you again. I ask you not to look for me, unless I ask for it. If someone will ever write a letter to you with my signature, then throw it away without opening it since there's a big chance that I contains something dangerous. But it it's addressed to you by me, I will use both my names then. You'll understand if you get a letter and then you can open it safely, I truly hope that this letter will explain much to you. Believe me when I say that you and Melinda will always have a place in my heart.

Tom Marvolo Riddle.

Tom looked down on the letter he had just written and looked a bit disgusted. Of course, he meant nothing of what he had written, but Sarah didn't have to know that. However, actually Tom felt something for her. He thought that he loved her, but he knew that Voldemort didn't and who knew what could happen if he got control when he was seeing Sarah. Deep down, Tom knew that Voldemort had already won, but that wouldn't stop him from trying. He would never stop trying.

He sighed and sent Barny away with the letter before grabbing a cloak and disapparated to Cygnus. Maybe it was for the best to visit him anyway. He knew that it was a bad idea, but he couldn't resist to scare Cygnus a bit.

Only a second later the door to Cygnus house was opened by a chubby house elf. Tom commanded the house elf to take him to Cygnus and when he found out that he wasn't home he just walked in, in spite of the house elf's protests.

"Mister cannot go in there. Master Cygnus told me not to let anyone in, no matter how important it was", the house elf tried, but Tom didn't listen.

"Really? He did?" Voldemort looked down on the house elf who immediately when he saw the devilish look he got.

Tom snorted and walked further in into the house. To the part where he knew that Cygnus kept all the information he had received. He didn't care about knocking at the door now when he knew there was no one at home, but started, systematic, looking through the room.

Finally. he found what he was looking for, and got a little disappointed when he realized that the information was completely worthless. That wasn't like Cygnus, who always did everything to get all the information Tom needed. Even though he didn't like what he was doing. He had never done, but that had never been a problem. Some torture and he did what he was told.

Suddenly the door was opened behind him and Cygnus entered the room. He raised his eyebrows when he noticed that Tom was there, but somehow he wasn't very surprised. Tom strongly suspected that the house elf had told him.

"What are you doing here?" asked Cygnus and walked over to the desk.

"What am I doing here? I'm looking for you. Abraxas looked for you and your house elf apparently had told him that you were at St. Mungo's. Did anything happen?" Tom felt himself getting angry for nothing. Cygnus probably had a good reason to be where he was.

"That's correct. Druella passed out and we had to go there. The healers aren't sure of what she's got, but whatever it is, it led her to miscarriage."

"Pity. I guess you'll have to try again." He didn't show the least sympathy for what had happened, but Cygnus didn't seem to expect anything else.

"Are you finding anything interesting?" He changed the subject and looked at Tom with raised eyebrows.

"As a matter of fact, I don't. Which is very surprising."

"I told you that I need more time. I can have all information done at Wednesday, but hardy before that."

"I told you that I'll need it tomorrow and I've even told you why. Isn't that true?" Now he started to get really annoyed. Didn't Cygnus understand that he needed the information now?

"That's true, but I'm working as fast I can."

"It doesn't matter. I'm going to need the information before six tomorrow night and if I were you I'd make sure to find something of a bit more importance than what's in here, because that's worthless. Understood?"

"Of course, my lord." Cygnus bowed and disappeared.

**TBC...**


	13. Samuel Smith

**Here you go. Another chapter. Might take some time for the next chapter to be published, but my beta has much to do and I don't want to stress her. Hope you will like this chapter as well and please review.**

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**Chapter 12: Samuel Smith**

The clock almost stroke six the day after when Cyngus came by with all the papers. Tom skimmed them through and nodded encouraging at Cyngus, who bowed easily.

"So took care of the information after all?"

"Did I have a choice?"

"Not really." He used the superior tone again. The same tone as he usually did when he was surprised.

"I heard that Mr. Burke was back. How did that go?"

"Not that it's any of your concern, but pretty good. It's nice not have to do everything, not that it's hard, but anyway." Tom smiled a rare smile and turned his gaze to the window that was situated in the kitchen. Cygnus took it as a motion to leave, bowed easily and disappeared through the front door.

Tom stood for a long time staring out through the window, before finally sitting down at the kitchen table, skimming through todays Daily Prophet. As usual, there was nothing interesting, or at least he thought so until he came to page eight. There was a small picture of Jack.

At ten pm yesterday was Jack Smith reported dead. According to witnesses, the last one he saw was an old friend, whose name is still a mystery. The ministry is doing everything in their power to find the body of Jack, since both parents are muggles and not used to magic.

It was only a short notice, but it cheered Tom up. Maybe it was time to pay Samuel a visit. Sure, Jack had been missing for weeks now, but there was, of course, no one who knew that. A simple memory charm and everything had been taken care of. Sure, they could be broken, but it wasn't very likely for someone to do it, since it was really hard. Not until he had gotten what he needed at lease and then he would still be far away.

He conjured a kettle and filled it with water. With another flick of his wand he made the water boil and went to get a teacup. Then he sat there, sipping his tea and kept reading the newspaper.

When he was done with it he picked up a dark arts book and started to read that one instead.

When Tom looked at the clock next time he realized to his great surprise that he had been reading for about four hours. The tea was standing, barely touched on the table and he carefully poured it out before going to bed.

The day after he decided that he would visit that Samuel and maybe even try to get the diadem. The only thing he couldn't figure out was why a muggle would have it in his possession. However, that was the next thing to do.

He was at Borgin and Burkes around nine, two hours late, but as usual he didn't care very much.

"Mr. Burke!" he called and a very old man met Tom. Or very old, he was around 50. Tom had ever cared to ask for his age.

"There you are. You're late", Mr. Burke scolded and picked something up on the desk.

"I know, and I apologize for that. I found out something that I wanted to check up before coming here."

"Really? What Riddle?"

"Well, it's like this. There's a man named Samuel Smith. He was in the Prophet yesterday. My sources tell me that he's also the owner of Ravenclaws lost diadem." Tom smirked when he realized that Mr. Burke had silenced and was listening carefully to every word he said.

"Do you have any idea of how much that is worth?"

Tom nodded and sat down on an old chair. Mr. Burke sat down on another one and Tom continued;

"I planned to visit him and see for myself if the rumors are true."

"You do so. I'll see you tomorrow, hopefully with the diadem."

"I'll do my very best to get it. I promise." Tom added a silent not in his head. He had no plans at all to give Burke the diadem. That would only be a waste of resources

He quickly apparated to Smith's house and nodded carefully on the door. It was opened pretty hard by a woman in her twenties.

"Good day. I'm looking for Mr. Smith", he said politely and the girl showed him into the lounge.

"A moment, sir."

Only a couple of minutes later a man came down the staircase. Tom presumed that it was Samuel.

"What are you doing here? Are you one of those reporters that are doing everything they can to get into my house? I am very upset over my son's death and I'd rather not talk about it right now."

Tom was impressed of his way to speak, but it wasn't a good time to tell him that.

"First of all am I no reporter. My name's Tom Riddle and I'm from the wizarding world. Second, I'm here about your son." At those words, Samuel lit up and showed Tom into something that looked like a living room. It had never occurred to him how good it was to know all muggle objects names. Then at least he didn't have to worry about that.

"Can you perhaps tell me why my son was murdered?" Tom just smiled and wanted to say;

'Because he broke into my apartment', but of course he didn't say that. Instead he said;

"I'm not sure, but I have a theory that you might be interested to hear."

"I'd love to."

"It's like this. There are rumors in the wizarding word that you are the owner of a diadem. I have to ask you if that's correct."

"That's correct. Wait here for a moment and I will get it." Tom nodded and when Samuel turned his back to him, he smirked. This was going exactly according to his plans.

Barely two minutes later, he was back with the diadem.

"I presume that this is what you meant?"

Tom nodded, astounded, and reached his hand to touch it. Never in his life had he thought that he'd ever see the lost diadem. It was really worth all the efforts that he'd made. For once, he was happy that he killed Jack.

"You seem speechless", said Jacks father after a couple of minutes.

"It' such a beautiful diadem", Tom answered and managed to take his eyes off it.

"I agree. What did you want to tell me?"

"Right. It's like this. As I said before there a rumors about that you actually have this diadem, which I have now confirmed as true. There a people that would do everything in their power to get in their possession and if Jack died you'd be without heirs and have to get rid of the diadem. Unless they decided you get rid of you before that, which it rather likely for someone to do now when the rumors seems to be true." Tom enjoyed scaring him and could see the fear in his eyes.

"S-so you mean that someone would break into the house and kill me just to get their hands on this worthless thing?"

"Pretty much." Tom felt the anger boiling inside him. Apparently, this man didn't understand that the diadem was worth a fortune. Sure, he could tell him, but that would only complicate the process in getting his hands on it. It was better if he thought that it was worthless.

"Take it."

"What?" Tom was seriously surprised now. He'd never thought that it'd be this easy.

"Take it. I don't want it. Take it and leave me alone." Tom quickly took the diadem and disappeared through the front door.

Once outside he apparated to Abraxas Manor. It was silent, and just as usual Tom walked inside without knocking.

"Abraxas!"

"In the kitchen!"

Tom almost ran in to the kitchen with a smile on his lips.

"Are we alone here?"

"I think so. Is there something wrong, my lord?"

"No. Quite the opposite actually. I'm going to show you something that I want you to keep quiet about. You understand?"

"Of course, my lord." Abraxas seemed calmer than usually and Tom for once looked surprised.

He picked out the diadem from the pocket and put it on the table.

Abraxas gasped. "Is this what I think it is?"

Tom nodded slowly and looked at the death eater, satisfied.

"May I…?

Tom nodded again and Abraxas carefully picked up the diadem and touched it.

"I want you to hide this on a safe place that only you know about." Now it was Abraxas turn to nod.

"You're not even going to tell me where you've hidden it. I will ask you to get it when I need it, but you're not telling me where it is. Not even if I'm asking for it. Understood?"

"Of course, my lord."

Tom disapparated to the shop and put on a disappointed look while he came walked inside.

"Did you get it?" Tom barely got in before he got the question.

"It was apathetic copy. Not even worth a galleon." Burke seemed to get very disappointed, but quickly recovered from the news.

"It doesn't matter. I've heard of something else. There's a woman called Hepzibah Smith. Not related to Samuel Smith. Anyway, she has two very valuable objects that once belonged to the founders of Hogwarts." At those words, Tom sharpened his ears.

"What is it?"

"Hufflepuffs cup and Slytherins locket. I want you to try to get your hands on them if possible. How you do it, I don't care about. You can go home now if you want to.

"Thank you." Tom apparated back to the apartment, where he wanted to scream loud out of happiness, but of course he didn't. Instead, he threw himself on the bed, thinking of the locket. It belonged to him, not that Hepzibah smith. He would get, if it so was the last he did.

TBC...


	14. Dreams

**Now the chapter is beta-ed and also posted as you can see. Now I have a few more beta-ed chapters that I will post here very soon if someone is interested. Or, I will still post them even if no one is interested. Thanks to Erzibeth-Malfoy who helped me. **

**Chapter 13: Dreams**

He dreamt again. Nightmares. I wasn't like him to have nightmares, but now he did. Every night, he had woken up from the horrible dream. The dream where Melinda was taken away from him. It was insane how weird it was, He never remembered what the dream was about, only that Melinda was taken from him. It felt weird now. Maybe he dreamt nightmares because John had been taken from him as well, or maybe he felt guilty for what he had written to Sarah. Barny had come back only a couple of hours earlier, with a reply. There had been one word written on the paper. One word and nothing touched him as much as that word. Sorry. That was what she had written. He understood what she was going to do and it was his fault. Everyone around him disappeared. Of course, that would help him in the future, but he had not the slightest idea of that now. He had to wait and see what time brought with.

He woke up again around ten and looked surprisingly at the watch. He never slept this long, but he guessed this was different. Perhaps you got more tired from having nightmares and because of that, you slept longer. Tomorrow he would go and talk to Dumbledore. That had been decided for several weeks, but he didn't come to think of it until now. Sure, he hated Dumbledore, but if there was a chance of having a job at Hogwarts, he was willing to be around that old fool. Maybe they would come to some sort of understanding someday or maybe not. There were no big problems with Dumbledore, apart from the fact that he had an ugly habit to stick his nose into trouble that didn't concern him. Every time Tom came up with an idea and planned to implement something, he was there. As if secretly spied on him. Now Tom didn't think he did, but still. You never knew.

He went to the shop to tell Mr. Burke that he was planning to speak with that Hepzibah Smith. Maybe she was easily fooled and he got what he needed without a lot of persuasion, but then he had another problem. This time, Mr. Burke knew that what she had was real and he wasn't going to let Tom take them from him. On the other hand, maybe she was smarter than most witches and wizards and then he had to use his charm. His charm had never let him down before, not once. The problem was that everybody he was close to and maybe loved, died. Everyone around him died. Hopefully this case would be no different and he would be able to get his hands on the cup and locket and disappear before someone ever knew what had happened. He had already planned to leave. Travel around the world and learn many new things. This might happen a bit sooner than what he had expected.

It was easy to get the address, since Mr. Burke had saved it in case she would sell her most beloved possessions. Sure, it took a while to go there, but thank god for apparition. The problem was that he ended up a bit wrong. It wasn't usual that he did, but now he wasn't sure of where he was going and then he got a little nervous. Notice the word little, very little nervous. More surprised than nervous actually, but he was relieved when he found her house. He walked to the front door and carefully knocked.

It took a couple of minutes before the door was opened by a chubby little house elf.

"I would like to speak with Miss Hepzibah Smith." The house elf opened the door to let the guest inside.

"Hokey, who was it?" The voice seemed to come from something that looked like a living room. A messy one. It was visible that there was no one who cared about cleaning very often, not even the house elf.

"Madam has a visitor." The voice sounded harsh and wheezy and it would probably be tiresome to listen to it too long.

At those words, Hepzibah stood up and squeaked when she saw her visitor. Tom almost jerked back when he saw her. He had never seen an uglier woman before. He was probably around 60 and very overweight. Her chubby face probably didn't attract many men, which was probably good, thinking of the rest of her body. There were several bulging spots in her face and the eyes seemed to pop out of its holes. As said, there was nothing beautiful about her. Besides, she seemed to think that she was beautiful and dressed in tight clothes, which made her look, if possible, even bigger.

"I know who you are. You work at Borgin & Burkes, don't you? How's Mr. Burke these days? I haven't seen him in ages."

"That's correct. My name is Tom Riddle." Tom gave a fake smile and realized that it would be alternative two. Sure, it was messy around, but seemed fully conscious of what happened and who did what.

"How nice to meet you Mr. Riddle."

"Please, call me Tom." Voldemort snorted inside when he used that name. He wanted nothing more then to get rid of it, but wasn't time just yet. He had to wait some more first. A couple of months perhaps, but then the name Tom Riddle would be completely forgotten.

"It's nice to meet you Tom. My name is Hepzibah Smith, but perhaps you already know that." Tom nodded and she kept talking. "You never said how Mr. Burke was feeling."

"He's just fine. He recently got back from a vacation in Spain and I think he found it quite relaxing, but you know how he is. Never tells anyone anything.

"No, you're probably right. Maybe you would like to stay for a cup of tea, and we can discuss why you are here. How does that sound?"

"Tea would be good." Tom smiled again.

An hour later Tom had found out quite a lot about her. However, nothing that he hoped to be of any use in the future. He had promised to visit her again on Friday and hoped that he would find out some more useful information then.

He apparated to Abraxas Manor and sat down in an armchair close to the open fire. He came to think of the dream again. It started to become a problem. He couldn't focus on anything anymore and he had been forced to cancel a lot of meetings because of them. He had to take drastic measures. On Sunday perhaps, unless it was too late. Alternatively, when they had caught Henryson. He had to find out how things progresses with him as well. He hadn't received any news at all in a very long time and he started to get worried over the fact that his death eaters seemed incapable of catching him.

He heard the door open, only to be closed a couple of seconds later. Voldemort looked in the corner of his eye how the man hung his wet jacket on a hook nearby, looking hastily at the fireplace and slowly walk towards Tom, who once again put his concentration towards the fire who was flaming threatingly in front of him.

The death eater stopped behind the armchair and bowed his head.

"My lord has a visitor", he mumbled silently and Tom, for once, looked honestly surprised. Not that he didn't have any visitors, but because he had a visitor when he was at Abraxas Manor. It was few who knew each other and those who did know, knew that they should stay away, unless called for.

"Who is it?" His eyes never left the fire, which was now flaming even more threatingly than before and the death eater involuntarily took a few steps backwards. He probably knew better than to underestimate Voldemort.

"I don't know. He insisted on keeping the hood up. "

"Where is this man now?"

"He's waiting outside. I thought that was better."

"Good. Very good. Show him inside." The man bowed and walked back to the door, which was opened and closed as fast as possible to let as little coldness in as possible.

"Leave us", he commanded and smiled satisfied when the death eater left the room. "Tell me your name and purpose."

"My name is Andrew Johnson. I believe we met at Borgin & Burkes last week. Mr. Burke was in Spain on a vacation.

"I remember. There is no reason to go through that again. What are you doing here?"

"I heard that you're looking for a man named Adam Henryson." Tom's eyes flew open, turned around, and met Andrews's eyes for the first time this day.

"Who told you?" The words weren't more than a whisper and any death eater at all would take this as an order to fall on his knees. But not Andrew. He stayed on his feet. Completely terrified of course, but he stayed.

"I don't remember. I think his name was Jonas, but I'm not completely sure."

"When?"

"A couple of days ago maybe. I'm not really sure when." Tom sighed and flicked his wand to put some more wood into the fireplace. "I thought you might want help in finding him."

"Help? If I want help, I will ask for it. You if someone should know about this. We're doing absolutely fine without your help.

"I can see that", said Johnson and left the room without a word.

Tom sighed and thought about killing him for putting his nose into other people's business. He realized that he could do that later if he needed. Now he had to find Jonas and find out how many beside Jonas that knew what he was doing.

The door was opened once again and this time it was Abraxas that came home. He was actually the reason for Tom to be there. To talk to Abraxas. In fact, it would be good if Cyngus was here as well, but he was busy with Henryson at the moment, so they'd have to manage without him.

"What is my lord doing here?" Abraxas didn't seem surprised to see Tom there and probably knew the reason for him being there as well, but it was always polite to ask.

"We have to talk." Malfoy nodded and they sat down at the dining table.

"Tom, what's happened?"

"Nothing. I just need to know how things are progressing with Henryson." He had to make hard fists not to punch Abraxas off his chair.

"It's going, simply. He knows what to do to not be found and it's not easier when he's not using any magic. If he had done so, we could have been able to track the source to that magic and also him. Now it seems like he's disappeared from earth."

"I'm running out of time and you know this."

"It'll take the time it'll take. If there's someone to get mad at it's Jonas. He's done everything to sabotage for us."

"Don't worry. I will take care of Jonas later, but everything has its time. On second thoughts, I haven't seen him in a while."

"No, but that's not so weird. He was going on a vacation in Turkey, I think." At this point Tom nails had dug so deeply into the skin that blood had started to drip on the floor.

"I will take care of it, but now I want to know how things are going with Alice?"

Abraxas seemed relieved over the question and started to relax a bit more.

"Find. The wedding's at one. I sent out invitations today." Tom smiled and nodded before rising from the chair and walked back to the fireplace and sat down in the armchair again.

"He sat there the rest of the day, reflecting everything that had happened in his life. Everyone he had killed and everyone had had tortured. Everyone he had seen get tortured and killed. Everyone that had died because of him. Melinda and John. He couldn't help it, but his eyes started to get wet and before he knew it several big teardrops were falling down his cheek. He stubbornly wiped them away, but for every tear he wiped away, three new ones fell. As if there was a big river behind his eyes, a river of everything he had done in his life, and now it had been filled over the edge. He had to make the river deeper. Make sure it was abysmal. Everything just fell down into nothing, but not now. Now all he wanted was to get everything out of his body.

TBC...

**So, please leave a review and tell me what you think. Cookies for everyone who does that.**


	15. Old visits

**So, here's the next chapter even though no ones reviewed yet. I must say I'm a bit disappointed in that, but I promised you (and myself) to finish this no matter what.**

**Chapter 14: Old visits**

The clock almost stroke four when Tom finally apparated back to his apartment. He had been sitting at Abraxas for several hours now, and was tired of it.

"Where have you been?" hissed Nagini annoyed.

"At Abraxas, where else?" answered Tom and threw himself at the bed.

"How was I supposed to know? You never talk to me nowadays. You're barely home. Perhaps you should sell the apartment and move in with Abraxas instead?"

"Don't be silly. Why would I do that? Besides, he wouldn't like it."

"He wouldn't think like you do, but he wouldn't throw you out."

"Don't be silly," I said. "Of course, he wouldn't throw me out. He's become so quiet these days. I can barely talk to him the way I used to any more. I spoke to him a couple of days ago, but he didn't seem very interested in what I had to say after a while."

"Maybe he has grown tired of you?"

"Who knows? I have to go and take care of Jonas." Nagini snorted in the snake-ish way and Tom giggled. To hear a snorting snake wasn't very usual and now he knew why. "You may come with me if you like."

Nagini nodded and slowly slithered up on Tom's body and twined her body around Tom's chest and stomach several turns. Tom looked himself in the mirror and gasped for air. It was truly a beautiful sight. Others might not say the same. Terrifying and dangerous and perhaps beautiful, but no one would probably notice the beauty when they saw how terrifying he looked. He apparated to Abraxas mansion and summoned Jonas. He sat down in the armchair at the fire and waited for his summoned death eater.

He showed up several minutes later, wearing only shorts and a red-flowering T-shirt. He smiled with his whole face. Something that the second later was changed into horror when he saw Tom.

"What does my lord wish?" Jonas regained his self-control very fast, but Tom realized that it was only because he knew that Voldemort wouldn't let Nagini kill him. At least not yet.

"Sit down." Tom offered a chair and Jonas sat down obediently. A bit stiff perhaps, but he sat down nevertheless. "I wish that you tell me something and I want you to be honest." Jonas nodded and leaned back. He seemed to try to relax, but stiffened every time he looked at Tom and therefore tried to keep his eyes on the floor.

"Tell me why Andrew Johnson knows that we're looking for Adam Henryson?"

"I don't know. May I leave now?" Jonas seemed very eager to get away from his lord, but Tom wasn't going to let him leave just yet.

"No, not yet." Nagini slithered down on the floor and lay around Jonas feet. Tom smirked and looked at Jonas.

"Why not?"

"Because you haven't told me the whole truth yet. Don't think for one moment that I don't know you're lying. Don't underestimate me, Jonas. You know how people who underestimate me end up."

"I don't underestimate you. I simply mean that if you haven't been able to catch Henryson yet, you might not ever do." He seemed to relax more now and Tom was surprised by his relaxing way of speaking.

"I believe you would be very surprised of what I'm capable of", answered Tom and tilted his head with a large smirk on his lips, "Crucio." Jonas had never noticed the wand that had been aimed at him the whole time.

Tom watched in satisfaction at Jonas when his eyes shot open and he fell screaming to the floor when the curse hit him.

With a light flick of his wand, be made the pain go away and the death eater stopped screaming.

"Let's try again, shall we? Why does Andrew Johnson know that we're looking for Adam Henryson?" Jonas breaths were heavy and it took time before he answered.

"He found me and asked me. Veritaserum. I couldn't help it."

"Why didn't you tell me right away? Wouldn't that have been better than to get tortured?"

"I don't know, my lord." Jonas seemed to breathe easier when he noticed that Tom seemed to believe what he was saying. He couldn't be more wrong.

"Do I get this right? You prefer to get tortured before telling me the truth?"

"N-no, of course not."

"Why?"

"Because I needed help, all right? Is there anything wrong with that? We're starting to panic over this Henryson and I needed help. Is that so hard to understand?" Tom sat speechless and only stared at Jonas. Nagini had slithered back around Tom's chest and shoulders and even she seemed surprised by the outburst.

"You should have said something."

"Don't you think I've tried? I've been thinking over this about a hundred time, trying to figure out a way to tell you without making you angry."

"Why would I be angry?" Tom was seriously surprised by that statement.

"I don't know. You're getting angry for anything these days", spat Jonas and heaved himself up in the chair that Tom had conjured for him.

"Why can't you just accept Andrew and let him help you?"

"Because we don't need any help."

"Can't you understand that we do?"

"Sure. Have it your way. Take help from this Andrew if you have to." Tom sighed and shrugged. Nagini hissed threatingly and Jonas gave a sigh of relief. "But if you say as much as one word to anybody except him, you are in big trouble. I trust you know that already."

"I understand. I promise. Not a word." Jonas fell to his knees at Tom's feet and kissed the hem of his robes. "Thank you, my lord."

Tom nodded and dismissed him before he and Nagini disapparated back to the apartment.

"That was a different version", said Nagini silently when she slid across the floor.

"Do me a favor and keep an eye on Andrew for me. And Jonas too if you can." Nagini nodded and slithered out through the now open front door. Tom could hear her distant hisses, but didn't care to listen to what she said. She was big now, really big. Probably around four meters and she just kept growing. That was the last Tom was thinking before he fell exhausted on the bed.

He woke up again around eight and Nagini slithered around his legs.

"Please Tom wake up", she hissed and squeezed his legs even tighter.

"What is it?" he muttered and slowly sat in the bed.

"Something's wrong. Something's terrible wrong with Andrew. I don't think it's actually him."

"And why not?"

"Or, maybe it is him but then he's under the Imperius curse. You have to see it with your own eyes."

"Show me", whispered Tom and grabbed a cloak before picking Nagini up and disapparated to the place where Andrew was located.

They came there and saw Andrew doing laundry. Or at least it looked like he was doing laundry, but he could be wrong. This laundry must have been what Nagini meant with the fact that he was so weird. She had never seen anyone doing laundry the muggle way before. Tom wasn't very used to this kind of muggle things either. Sure, he had lived in a muggle orphanage, but you forgot stuff. Especially things you didn't want to remember. Usually you forgot all important things and remembered what you didn't want to, but this was not the fact in Toms case. He never used to remember the names of people unless he knew for a fact that he would see them again. If he had gotten all the information he wanted from one person he didn't use to put much attention at those who he had killed. He had gotten all the information he wanted from this source and then there was no longer any reason for that person to keep living. Besides, he wouldn't probably want to live either, thinking of what Tom had done to him

"What are you doing?" Tom walked closer and looked at Andrew with a strange face.

"What does it look like?" he spat and Tom took a step backwards.

"Doing laundry", he answered calmly and sat down on a nearby chair.

"Exactly. Why do you ask if you already know?"

"I wonder why you do it the muggle way?"

"Because I want to. It's pretty fascinating, don't you think?"

"Not really." Tom looked at the washing machine with disgust and then turned his attention back to Johnson, "I believe Jonas has been here and told you that I will allow you to help me. Am I right?"

"That's correct. You can't make it without me, can you?" Andrew looked mockingly at Tom who quickly raised his wand.

"Dare to say that again. If you're going to help me, there are three things you have to know. One: I'm in charge. If you're going to help me you have to stand that I'm going to meddle and ask strange questions. You will answer those questions as good and detailed as you can and not care of why I want to know it. Two: Never question me. If I want you to do something, you will do it whether you like it or not. Three: I don't want you to tell anyone about this. Do that and both you and that person will die a very painful death. Perhaps unnecessarily painful. You understand?"

"I understand", answered Andrew shortly and nodded.

"Good." With that word he apparated away again. Back to the apartment.

"You shouldn't have let him leave as easily as you did. You don't need him."

"Don't you think I know that", he spat and pulled out a chair so hard that it fell to the floor. "We're running out of time. It's already been too long. I had wanted to have finished this by today so that I could focus completely at my meeting with Dumbledore tomorrow."

"I know, but there are nothing we can do about that now. Sleep on it and you may have an epiphany tomorrow morning before going to Dumbledore.

"You're right I guess. Keep an eye on Andrew tomorrow for me, will you? I want to know he has gotten his information and if he even has. Good night." Tom stifled a yawn and slowly undressed and crawled down in the bed. He only saw glimpses of Nagini as she slid through the front door and he locked it with a flick of his wand. Then he fell asleep without even a thought of what was going to happen tomorrow.

TBC....

**So, any reviews on this chapter? Please tell me if you liked it or not.**


	16. Home visits

**New chapter, though still no more comments. Anyway, here's chapter fifteen. Hope you'll like it. Many thanks to Erzibeth-Malfoy who beta-ed this chapter for me. And all other chapters as well for that matter.**

**Chapter 15: Home visits**

He woke up with a wide grin on his lips. Some might take this as a friendly smile, but they were all wrong. This was no friendly smile; it was a smile of hatred. A seductive smile. He yawned and pulled a sweater over his head. He kept having the seductive smile on his lips until there was a knock on the door.

"It's open", he called and the door was open slowly. Malcovich.

"Can we talk?"

"I'm busy, can we take it tomorrow?" Tom grabbed a sandwich from the fridge and looked at Jason with hatred.

"No, it's important." He was very stubborn and after a while of consideration, Tom gave in and nodded.

"Why is Andrew Johnson helping us? That little parasite is coming here, destroying to us and then tells us that you've given him permission to be there. I didn't notice any mark. Since when do you take help from others?"

Tom sighed and looked if possible at Jason with even more hatred. "I have my reasons."

"Then I would like to hear those reasons?" Malcovich sat down on a chair, but quickly were commanded on his feet again.

"What gives you the right to question your lords' decisions?" It was impossible not to notice the coldness in his voice and Jason took a few steps back.

"N-nothing, my lord", he stuttered and throw himself at the floor at Toms feet. "I apologize. Forgive me."

"I do not forgive and I thought you knew that", answered Voldemort and pulled his wand out of his pocket.

"O-o-of course my lord." He kissed the hem of Toms robe and backed.

"Good, then I don't want this to be repeated once more." Malcovich was on his way of saying something when Tom raised his hand and silenced him. "It's lucky for you that I have no time for you at the moment. You're dismissed, but only this once."

He didn't have to say that twice. The death eater before him disappeared almost before Tom had completed the sentence.

He sighed and continued eating his sandwich and a couple of minutes it was all eaten. He decided to check up on Henryson before going to see Dumbledore. He still didn't have time there until four. Now it was around eleven so he had a lot of time before he had to be there. It was enough if he was in Hogsmeade at three-thirty. It would be pretty perfect to walk up to the school then. He had really missed it. Before he had moved to the apartment, Hogwarts was the only thing he ever called home. Not that he saw the apartment as his home, but it was still much better than the orphanage, which he certainly never had called home. It had been more of a place to stay during the summers. Maybe not the best place to stay in, but at least no one would ever think of looking for him there. He hadn't even seen a small glimpse of the orphanage since he left it and that was something he had never regretted. Imagine to escape all the whispers there for the rest of his life. Of course, there were children that were there, but no one that he'd even been there with. Amy Benson and Dennis Bishop for example. Somewhere in his mind, he wondered what they were doing right now. Not that he cared, but he was curious. He almost pitied them. They were, after all, just muggles.

He apparated to Cygnus for once and this time he didn't bother knocking. What surprised him the most was how abandoned it seemed to be. As if no one had lived there for months, or even years.

"Hello! Is there anyone here?" When he didn't get any reply he apparated to Abraxas instead. Maybe he would find Cygnus there. He looked through the entire mansion and right when he was about to give up the front door was opened and no other than Simon entered it.

"Where are everybody?"

"I don't know. I just got here. I was going to pick up Joachim, but he doesn't seem to be here, which is strange since I asked him to stay."

"Why are you so annoying?" the question seemed to shock Simon, because he looked very surprised and it took some time before he answered.

"I actually don't know. I just am", he answered and smiled.

"I suggest you wipe that grin from your face and help me find out where everybody is." Simons grin was immediately wiped away and switched into more of an annoyed and irritated smile.

"As my lord commands."

They looked through the entire house without finding even a clue and meet again in the kitchen.

"Strange", said Simon and sighed.

"Very", agreed Tom silently and nodded.

"Can't you just, you know, summon them, or something?" Tom hit his forehead for not thinking of that before. Of course, he could summon them. That wasn't hard.

"Give me your left arm." Simon looked at his lord, surprised, but did as he was told.

Tom pushed his finger on the dark mark and Simon made a face. Only the second later, he removed the finger and waited for Abraxas. It had been unnecessary to summon all death eaters when he only wanted to talk to Abraxas.

He showed up around ten minutes later with a wide grin on his lips.

"Where have you been?"

"Planning my wedding. As you might remember, it's on Saturday and I wanted to know what was on the menu. How long did you plan to stay?" Tom shrugged and motioned for Simon to leave the room, whereupon he did.

"How does things progress with Henryson?"

"Good. If I may say it, Andrew's been of good help. Now things progress."

"That is good. To me a favor and keep an eye on him. Although I have Nagini watching him as well, but a couple of extra eyes wouldn't be wrong. I'm thinking of marking him, but I haven't decided just yet. What do you think?" It was clearly visible that Abraxas didn't expect Tom to ask him about his opinion. Not that he usually cared about what everyone else said, but because it wasn't normal for him to ask.

"I don't know. I guess it's a good idea. Then he wouldn't gossip at least."

"He gossips now, you mean?"

"No, not at all, I just mean that it would be harder for him to do if he wanted to. You would without a doubt have more control of his private life then as well." Tom nodded assent and smiled. Something that surprised Abraxas very much.

"What is it?" The smile was almost immediately changed into an annoyed face.

"Just the fact that I haven't seen you smile like that since Hogwarts. Not since fifth year perhaps. And even then it was seldom. Do you remember it?"

"Yes, I do. It would be wasted if I didn't." Tom looked quickly on his watch and didn't think of it very much. Only the second later he looked at it again and realized to his horror that it was three-forty-five. He apparated rapidly to Hogsmeade and almost ran up to the school. It wasn't that far and Tom was happy that there was no snow today.

Once up at the school he slowed his pace and was pretty soon met by the present gamekeeper, Rubeus Hagrid. Tom really hated him and he knew that Hagrid felt the same. It was, after all, Tom who had made sure that he had been expelled from the school. If it weren't for Dumbledore, he would probably be dead by now. Not that Tom would have minded, but still. Hagrid brought Tom to the headmaster's office and left Tom to his faith. It didn't take many minutes before Albus Dumbledore's voice told him to enter. Polite as he was, he did as he was told and greeted the headmaster very politely. Tom soon realized that he wouldn't get the job. Dumbledore had never liked him and didn't trust him for a moment. But Tom would make sure that no one else would get the job either. Not for a longer time anyway.

"Have a seat." Dumbledore invited him to sit down at the chair opposite to his own.

They sat there talking for hour and Tom apprehended that this was probably the longest job interview in the world history. Or perhaps not longest, but it was long nevertheless.

"I'm sorry Tom, but I cannot give you the job. You're still too young and I don't know if I can trust you with all that's going on inside your body. Perhaps you can get a work in the ministry or another school." Tom felt for a moment how his eyes flashed in red and realized at once that Dumbledore must have seen it.

After some arguments, Tom had to give in and thanked him before disappearing through the office door.

He disappeared from the school area and apparated back to the apartment where he hit his hand on the kitchen table. The owl Barny flapped sacredly and hooted agitated from the cage, which was at the moment placed on the drawer. Tom opened the cage and let him out and he flew out through the open window, relieved. Voldemort threw himself at the bed and groaned in a high and annoyed voice.

He had almost fallen asleep when there was a knock on the door. Tom slowly walked to open it.

"Who is it?" he called before opening. When there was no answer, he slowly opened the door. Outside stood none other than Cygnus and Druella.

"What do you want?" It wasn't Toms intention to sound angry, but it was probably because he didn't get the job.

"We need your help", answered Cygnus silently and Tom reluctantly let them inside.

"What do you want?" he asked again when they sat down around the kitchen table.

"We need your help", repeated Cygnus.

"I heard that, but what do you want help with?"

"Well, it's like this…" started Cygnus, but Druella silenced him with a sour look.

She cleared her throat and started telling.

TBC...

**Please review.**


	17. Problems

**So, here's next chapter. Hope you'll enjoy it, if someone's even reading this. :( No cookies, but I hope for some on this chapter instead. Thanks to Erzibeth-Malfoy who beta-ed this chapter. Very kind of you. Hope to see some comments soon.**

**Chapter 16: Problems**

"Well, it's like this. We have just lost our unborn baby that we've been longing for since we first found out that I was pregnant. I know that you are aware of this, but I have to tell you. Otherwise this will lead nowhere." Cyngus nodded and the background. He seemed to have grown tired of hearing this story and apparently, he hadn't looked forward to this child as much as Druella had done.

"We have been informed that someone might have removed the baby or caused the miscarriage and now we need your help to find out who it is." Druella took a deep breath and looked at Tom, who sat stiffly on the chair, nodding, with begging eyes.

"I would like to speak to Cygnus before deciding", said Tom and Druella stood up, angrily and immediately left the room.

"Tell me what's really going on. I know it's not about the baby." Voldemort stood and it was hard not to notice his commanding voice.

"We have suspicions about Henryson. I don't really care about the baby, since I think it's too soon." Tom lighted up at the mentioning of Henrysons name, but it slowly changed into sadness when he realized that it wasn't very good news.

"I'm listening", answered Tom with a light shrug, as if he didn't care, when he actually cared very much, but he didn't want to show it openly to Cygnus. Perhaps to Abraxas, but never to Cygnus.

"As I'm sure you are aware of the fact that we've gotten no information at all of where he resides. We have all the time assumed that he's using magic, but there might be another reason to our problem." He made a shout pause to see if Tom wanted to add something, but when he didn't get any answer he continued: "It might be so that he's actually dead." He swallowed hardly when Tom's eyes flashed in red and Cygnus averted his eyes.

"After all our work, after all that we've done to catch him, you come here and tell me that he's dead", shook Tom and stood so fast that the chair slammed to the floor.

"No. No, of course not. I never said that he was. What I mean is that he might be dead. It us unforeseen complications that we haven't counted with, but that I think we should add to our information. I've been thinking of this day in and day out and not come up with anything better than this. I'm not saying that he's dead. Absolutely not, because I hope, just as you, that we can find him alive. Maybe not sane, but still alive and that is always something." Cygnus relaxed when he saw that Tom did the same.

"I want to know where Adam Henryson resides, and I want to know it now. I'm busy as it is without looking for a potential killer. I don't care at all about your and Druellas problem at the moment. Just make sure to do as you're told.

"But…" It was a pitiful answer even from Cygnus, but now Tom either had time or energy with that kind of problem.

"No buts. I'm trying to have private things done, but how do you think that goes when I'm disturbed all the time. Take your wife and don't show yourself here unless called for."

"But…"

"LEAVE!" Cygnus gave a jump, bowed easily and disappeared out of the apartment before Tom had time to even blink.

Tom raised the chair he had slammed to the floor and sat on it. He felt like he was going to pass out. What if Cygnus was right? What it Henryson was dead. Then all this plans would be for nothing. Perhaps not the horcruxes, but everything else he had worked for this far. It would be a million times harder to take over the ministry and even harder to take over Hogwarts. Right now, all he wanted was to go back the Chamber of Secrets. Back there and everything that had happened. He knew it was impossible to get back to that place again, but he couldn't help to dream about it. It was the only place, or one of few, where there had been no mudbloods, muggles or squibs. Not that he had anything against squibs generally, but they were pretty worthless. They couldn't use magic even though they had knowledge about it. Maybe some of them were very good in some subjects, but usually not. It was mostly mudbloods he hated. They entered the magical world without having a connection to it. He completely agreed to Salazar Slytherin in that point. Only pureblood witches and wizards would have the privilege to use magic.

The sun shining in his eyes woke him up the next morning and he muttered in a low voice, before getting out of bed, pulled a clean sweater over his hand, and stated that maybe it was time to do some laundry. He wrinkled his nose at the fact and looked at the now rather big pile of clothes laying on the floor in the middle of the room. It wasn't exactly well cleaned and here and there you could find a mouse or something that Nagini had brought with after a successful hunting. Of course she had to say hidden, but that wasn't anything she seemed to bother her very much.

"Scourgify", he muttered tiredly and stifled a yawn. The room started to clean itself, but you never knew how long it lasted. Sometimes the whole apartment was cleaned and sometimes just a corner. He had some breakfast and apparated to Abraxas.

It was silent there. Almost shockingly silent, but Tom was happily surprised when he found Barny on one of the wooden chairs in the kitchen. Someone seemed to had let him inside and that was something that made Tom very happy today. The other was that he had another meeting with Hepzibah Smith today. His second and a meeting he hoped wouldn't be in vain. He had, nevertheless, got in invitation for lunch during Saturday, but he had been forced to decline it because of Alice and Abraxas wedding. Therefore, he had booked a meeting with her during Sunday instead. Maybe he should give Andrew the mark as so many had suggested, but he was still not sure about it. The kitchen door creaked and Tom quickly turned around just to see Malcovich standing in the door.

"You know. It's easier to see if you light a candle or something", he said and smirked.

"I can see excellent even without light, thank you very much", he spat back and Jason's smirk grew.

"I heard you were invited for the wedding on Saturday. Can I ask why?"

"First of all you have nothing to do with that and for the second I have still not gotten over what you did."

"Right, I killed your pathetic cousin, but why does that matter? I mean, if he really meant as much to you as you said he did, I would be dead by now." Tom was quiet and watched Malcovich. Perhaps he was right. Perhaps he really hadn't cared at all about John. Maybe it had just been something he had to do.

"Go", he said easily and Jason's smirk turned into a grin before he slowly left the room.

"Remember that I'm not done with you yet!" he called out through the door and you could hear the death eaters steps silence for a moment, to then disappear very fast.

He looked at the watch. Two-thirty. Maybe it was time to get ready. The meeting, or date or whatever you called it were at three and this far he had never been too late or too early. He always got exactly when he planned to. As if he would waste time by coming a minute before or later. It was a waste of time. He apparated back home, took a shower and changed before apparated further. This time to a flower store. He bought a bouquet Orchids and apparated back home again. It was almost tedious to apparated everywhere these days. It was all you ever did. He was a bit worried of becoming fat, but that had never been a problem this far. Maybe he got exercise while dueling, as he loved to. Just that was hard and who knew what would come of the future. He looked at the watch. Ten to two. He decided to appear a couple of blocks away and walk the rest of the way. Then it would look a bit more normal and not as if he had things to do all days, which he really had.

Exactly at two, he knocked at the door and the house elf Hokey opened the door once again. This time with a gloomy expression.

"I'm here to see Miss. Hepzibah", said Tom and Hokey showed him into something that still looked like a messy living room. He had never realized if it was a living room or not. He was asked to have a seat and she would come down in a moment.

Tom waited for about ten minutes before she came down from the stairs that led to the attic where she had her bedroom. She was still as ugly as before, but this time she had at least toned down the colors a bit, but that wasn't what Tom reacted on. In some way, she seemed a bit too happy for only sitting here in the morning without doing anything. She wobbled in the doorway and then Tom realized what was wrong with her. She was drunk.

TBC...

**A:N// A bit of a cliffhanger at the end, but who cares. If you do, and want the next chapter up soon, please review. Just a good or bad would be enough for me.**


	18. Chats

**Here's chapter 17, but it's still not beta-ed. Hope you can stand all my grammar and spelling mistakes. Please tell me if something is terribly wrong and I hope you'll like it.**

**Chapter 17: Chats**

Tom stood looking at her for a moment before walking up to her, put firm a hand on her shoulders and led her back upstairs. All the time, she mumbled something inaudible and the only this Tom could get out of it was the third painting to the left. He really didn't understand, but that was the only thing he could define of her unintelligible ranting. He led her to her bad and lay her down firmly on the bed before asking Hokey to get her a glass of water. The house elf immediately ran away and came back a couple of minutes later with a big glass of water in its hands. Tom took it and poured a little of it in Hepzibahs mouth.

He didn't leave the house until late that night, when she had sobered up a bit and fallen asleep. Hokey showed him outside and thanked for his help. Tom snorted at that and didn't say anything, but instead disapparated to Abraxas mansion, where he wasn't surprised to find Nagini waiting for him, slithering around the table legs. He sighed quietly to himself and the snake slowly came slithering towards him. Tom lifted her up and put her around his shoulders, as he had done so many times before. He knew that she wouldn't hurt her and hissed in a low voice, but still firmly to her and he could feel her large body relax and closed her eyes as if she was going into some sort of dormancy. Tom knew that it was too early for her to go into dormancy now. It was just in the middle of august. It was still summer and she didn't have to go to dormancy for yet a couple of months. Tom sighed again and rose, while trying to stifle a yawn.

He slowly walked out to the kitchen where he found Joachim. Apparently, Simon had found him after all. Not that Tom cared. He never did so why would he do it this time? The boy rose from the chair when Tom entered the room, but Tom motioned for him to sit down again and said boy did so again.

"You're not leaving yet, are you? I was hoping we could talk", said Tom sarcastically and knew that Joachim would stay and listen to what he had to say.

"Of course, my lord", Joachim answered uncomfortably and looked down on the table.

Voldemort sat down on a chair in front of his young death eater, who was still looking down on the table.

"I presume you already know what I want."

Joachim nodded slowly, but still kept his eyes fixed on the table.

"Good. How long is it since you became a part of our… coven you might call it. Don't you think?" He still only received a small nod back. Now he started t get annoyed.

"Look at me!" he screamed and Joachim flinched and looked at him. "Answer my question." His voice was silky almost as fast again and he watched as the death eater involuntarily shuddered.

"About half a year ago, my lord", he muttered and looked down on the table again.

"Good. Now let's talk about your cousin." Tom received a small nod back again, but didn't give it much thought.

"I have understood that he is pretty arrogant and I want you to talk with him. Talk with him and tell him that if he doesn't stop being so arrogant, I will personally make sure it's the last thing he does. My patience is running out, you know. He has two chances left. TWO. Tell him that!" Joachim nodded and stared down at the table.

"Look at me!" he screamed again and stood, walked over to the death eater and pulled him out of the chair.

"You know what I think of this! You know just as well as everybody else that I don't tolerate disrespectfulness and you're not making it easier for yourself. I trust you know that!" Joachim took a few steps backwards and was shaking with fear.

"You should be punished for this and it's lucky for you that I am not in the mood right now. He has two chances left. Understood?" The death eater sank down on his knees at Voldemort's feet and mumbled a hurriedly 'yes' and apologized before he disappeared from the room.

Tom took a deep breath and sighed before he sat down at the table again with Nagini around his shoulders. It felt good not to think for once.

Abraxas running rapidly into the kitchen interrupted this calm moment rather quickly. He stopped for a moment to look at Tom, but kept on running almost immediately. This time on his way to the foyer instead. Tom followed him and watched as Abraxas parents were standing there, still with their coats on. Voldemort, being the polite one, decided to say hello, while Abraxas were running around like a maniac. It was obvious that he was under a bit stress for tomorrows big event.

"Tom Riddle", said Voldemort politely. "A pleasure to meet you."

"Yes. Indeed a very great pleasure Mr. Riddle. Abraxas has been speaking a lot of you", said Malfoy Senior and shook Tom hand.

"Really? He has? What has he told you?"

"Not much really. He's only mentioned your name a few times that's all", a woman cut off, probably not wanting to talk with him very much. Tom figured out that the woman was probably Abraxas mother.

"Oh, okay", mumbled Tom to himself. "You don't, by any chance, know why Abraxas is acting the way he does? I've never seen him like this before."

"It's the marriage tomorrow, I presume", his mother muttered and snorted.

"It sounds like Mrs. Malfoy doesn't agree to this marriage, am I right?"

"Not at all. I'm looking forward to the wedding very much and I'm glad that Abraxas finally came to senses and decided to marry Alice after all. I presume you had something to do with that, correct Mr. Riddle.

"I might have had something to do with it, but I can assure you that the whole concept was Abraxas idea and I haven't forced him into anything, if that's what Mrs. Malfoy is saying."

Abraxas mother snorted again and then walked out to the kitchen. Probably to get something refreshing to drink. Abraxas father wasn't late to follow his wife and Tom decided that now might be a good time to speak with Abraxas himself.

He found his death eater in his bedroom and if it weren't for his stomach moving up and down, Tom would believe that he was dead. Tom sighed and cursed himself for having sighing again. It wasn't like him, or it usually wasn't like him and he thought he had gotten rid of that ugly habit a long time ago. He sat down on the bed next to Abraxas, who flew out of bed with a jerk.

"Sorry", grinned Tom. "I didn't mean to frighten you."

"Dear, sweet, Tom. Do never, EVER do that again. You can't keep scaring the life out of me the day before my wedding. Do you know if everything is ready by the way? Of course you don't. Why would you know? Forget it, I have to go down and look", reeledAbraxas and got up.

"Abraxas, please relax. Everything's taken care of and I don't think you should care more about that now and I know that you know that. Sit down instead."

"Tom I can't. I have to go down and see if everything's ready", he continued and walked out through the wide-opened door.

"Abraxas. As your master, I command you to come back here and talk to me." The young Malfoy turned around and sat down on the bed again.

"What does my lord wish for?"

"What I wish for? I wish that you will take it easy and breathe a little. Perhaps even try to sleep a bit before the wedding tomorrow. Everything is finished. I thought Alice family took care of everything. Can you be so nice and calm down?" Tom said strictly and against his will, Abraxas calmed down. "You're getting married tomorrow and I want you to be rested then. Go to bed and sleep and you'll see that everything's going to be just fine."

"But what about Henryson? I promised you that we would find him before the wedding and we haven't. I'm sorry about that Tom.

"What have you to be sorry for? Nothing. You have done nothing wrong and I've got more than you working on Henryson at the moment. Don't worry. If you absolutely want to work with it, I will make sure it's the first thing you'll do when you get back from your honeymoon. Until then I will give you a free time from your obligations. I will not summon you unless absolutely necessary so that you can spend as much time with Alice as possible. Now, if you excuse me, will I go down and say a couple of words to Alice as well. Remember what I said. Sleep. That's an order." With a satisfied smirk on his lips, Tom left a furious Abraxas behind. He would probably be angry as well if someone had told him the same thing, but he couldn't help it. Sometimes being the dark lord had its benefits.

Tom slowly walked down the stairs and stopped in the foyer. He had originally planned to apparated to the Watkins to speak with Alice, but now it seemed like he didn't need to do that. He could hear her voice from the garden and fastly walked towards her voice.

He found her at a bench down at the lake. It was glassy in the moonlight and Tom realized that it was probably pretty late. He sat down next to her and stared up at the stars, which looked like they were glittering in the black sky.

"What are you doing here, sir?" Alice asked after a while without taking her eyes of the water.

"Making sure you're saying yes at the wedding tomorrow", answered Tom calmly and looked at her for a brief moment. Sure, she was beautiful, but he had no plans on any girlfriend and then it was better that she married Abraxas instead.

"Relax. I will. Abraxas has been really kind to me these couple of days. Do you have anything to do with that, sir?" Tom just smiled and Alice sighed heavily.

"You were screaming at someone before. Who was it? Tom looked at her and for one moment, his eyes flashed red.

"Mother and father. They're thinking that we should have the wedding and the reception at our house since it's a tradition, but I think it's more beautiful here."

"Oh, nothing else. I was almost starting to worry. You seem calmer than Abraxas, at least. He's a wreck and couldn't stop talking before. He's parents obviously didn't like it very much."

"So, you did a good deed than and calmed him down? Yes, that seem like you, unless you had something to gain on it, of course."

"You're amusing me, Alice, do you know that? To suggest something like that, without any proof at all. Is that really nice?

"Yes, sir. It's very nice. Am I wrong perhaps?" Alice looked at him and Tom just shrugged in defense.

"No, not really", he answered with a smile on his lips.

"I didn't think so either. May I ask what you gained on it?"

"I avoided the headache tonight and I don't have to feel guilty if Abraxas falls asleep at the wedding tomorrow. Now I think it's time for you to go to bed as well. Everything has been taken care of and you need to rest. You're getting up early tomorrow, don't you know that?

"Yes, I know sir and I hate it. I hate going up early. I can't believe that tomorrow at this time I am married."

Tom yawned and they got up and slowly walked back to the mansion. Voldemort made sure that Alice was taken care of before apparating back to his apartment with Nagini in his arms.

Once in the apartment, he let he slither down on the floor before undressing and crawled down in the bed. Tomorrow would be a long day.

TBC...


	19. The wedding

**Here's the next chapter. Still not beta-ed since my beta is busy. I will post the beta-ed version once I get it. Anyway, chapter's about Abraxas and Alice wedding and I hope you'll like it.**

**Chapter 18: The wedding**

The clock was seven-thirty when Tom Riddle opened his eyes this Saturday. It was a very special day today. Today was the day when Abraxas was going to get married to his cousin. Tom rubbed his eyes and mumbled a sleepy good morning to Nagini, who was currently laying at his feet. He got out of bed pretty quickly, undressed and went to take a shower. The least he could do to Abraxas was to be clean at the wedding.

Half an hour later, he put a robe on and apparated to Abraxas house. The big mansion was incredible beautiful and Alice and her family had really done wonders to the garden. The ceremony itself was to be held down at the lake who was laying glassy in the morning light. Tom shrugged easily, walked up the now flowery staircase,and opened the door. Not that the door had been beautiful, but Voldemort couldn't help but to gasp for air when he got inside. It was pointless to try to resist the beauty of the room. It was glittering in golden-brown, there was probably not a single stain of dirt in the whole room, and he had still only seen the foyer. He walked into the kitchen, but soon was thrown out by a bunch of house elves. Tom snorted at them, but walked away and kept on to Abraxas room. He sat on a chair, staring into the mirror that was hanging on the wall. He immediately stood when Tom turned up from behind him and turned to face him.

"Thank you", he said with a big smile in his face.

"What are you thanking me for?" Tom wondered and sat down on the bed, which was located in the middle of the room.

"For giving me this chance. If you hadn't talked to Alice, I would never have known that she liked me and she would never know that I liked her. I am very grateful for that and I don't know what I would do without you." Abraxas sat down next to Tom and they looked at each other for a brief moment before Tom stood up again. The groommade an approach to stand as well and follow him, but Tom stopped him with a wave of his hand.

"I'll be back later. I will just talk to Alice family and Andrew and then I will be back. I promise you that I will be back for the ceremony." Tom disappeared through the door before he had finished the sentence and apparated to the Watkins family.

He was met by a, not to stressed, Mr. Watkins, who looked at him for a moment before disappearing through the kitchen door. Tom followed him.

"Stressed?" Tom asked amused, in spite that he already knew the answer.

"A bit, sir. A bit."

"Where is Alice?"

"In her room", Mr. Watkins answered before disappearing through another door.

Tom sighed and slowly walked up the staircase and stopped outside Alice room. He slowly knocked at the door and opened before he received a reply. She was sitting, like Abraxas, and stared into the mirror. Tom could see that she had recently been crying and walked over to her. She slowly got up and looked at him. Tom shook his head and sighed.

"Yes I will say 'I do'. No, I won't say that you forced me into this and I will pretend to be happy. Is that all?" Tom smiled at her outbreak and nodded.

"I just want to be sure and you know that. Just make sure that he has a son. That's all I ask for."

"I hate you, you know that?" You're the lowest… most awful person I have ever met." She spat on the floor.

"I just want what's best for you."

"No you don't. You just want to have things your way. I will obey, I promise you that. Can you leave now, I need to change." It was first then Tom noticed that she was still standing in her pajama and slowly left the room. Tom sighed again and apparated to the next place. Andrew to be precise. He had made up his mind. Was he going to help them, it was best that he was one of them, just like Jason had said.

He landed close to a small village. Tom didn't exactly know where is was, but thinking of how it looked, he guessed somewhere on Ireland. It had never been difficult for him to find a person if he really wanted to, apart from Henryson then of course and that was pretty good right now. He knocked at the door to one of the few houses that were close. A few minutes later, a middle-aged woman opened the door. Tom thought it was Andrews's wife, or perhaps his sister. It was hard to decide. She let him inside and called for Andrew, who came from another room.

"So, you couldn't stand being separated from me a couple of days, did you?" he teased.

"Yes, I could, but I had an urgent meeting." Tom was not smiling back.

"Can't it wait? I'm a little busy."

"Unfortunately not. Can you come to me tomorrow?"

"That depends on what the meeting is about", answered Andrew with a shrug.

"I want you to be one of us. It would help a great deal if I could get in contact with you t anytime I want."

"Yeah, you would like that wouldn't you? Are you sure it's not because you don't trust me and want to check on what I do?" Andrews smiled had faded. Lord Voldemort didn't take a no very good, he knew that.

"That too, but we don't have to think about that right now. Can I trust you?" Tom reached out his arm and Andrew felt that he wouldn't end up very good if he didn't accept the offer right now.

"Tom, I don't know. It's not little you ask of me." Tom's eyes flashed in red and Andrew took a step back.

"It's okay. I'm not impossible. I will be back tonight. Make sure you've decided before that."

"What time?"

"I will see. It depends on the wedding, See you later." Andrew gulped hard and Tom disapparated.

The clock was not eleven and therefore Tom was at home, changing into something a bit more appropriate to wear during the wedding. Around eleven-thirty he apparated back to the wedding place. People were hurrying everywhere and it was close that Voldemort tripped several time because of all the people. He went up to Abraxas room where he found the groom and, to his surprise, even Cygnus. Both greeted him politely and he nodded back.

"How did it go at Andrews?" Malfoy looked at him with a smile.

"I'm not sure. I offered his a place among the death eaters, but he seemed very insecure." Tom shrugged and sat down on a chair.

"Can it be because he knows that you don't take the answer no very well and would probably kill him the second he refuses?" Cyngus burst out with a grin. It was the first time Tom hadn't heard him say anything since the incident at his place, when he had said that Henryson might be dead and that was why they didn't find him.

"It could have something to do with that, yes", Tom admitted with a sigh. "I just want to help him."

"I don't think he sees it as help." Abraxas looked in the mirror once more.

It became later and when the clock was twelve-thirty Cygnus and Tom took company down to the lake. Several guests had already arrived and were now discussing today's event. Tom grabbed Cyngus, who looked at Tom with surprise in his face.

"I want you to bring something to the meeting tomorrow", whispered Tom almost inaudible and Cygnus nodded discreetly. "If I ask you about it later, I want you to bring a muggle." Cygnus raised his eyebrows, but nodded again.

"May I ask why?" he mumbled and looked down on the ground.

"If we're lucky, Andrew will be one of us tomorrow and then we have to test him, don't you think?"

"Of course. We've tested everyone else, so why would he be different."

"Good. Then I trust you to do as I say. I will send an owl later tonight and tell you if we need one or not. One more thing. It would really help if this one were alive. You understand?"

"Of course, my lord." Tom nodded and they took their positions. The couple behind them was complaining loudly about the fact that their sons couldn't make it to the wedding and that they could have waited a couple of months with the ceremony.

Eventually the clock chimed one and everybody silenced. Tom stood and smiled one of his very rare smiles when the bride showed up. She was very beautiful, but not dressed in white, as many had believed she would. Instead, she was wearing a red dress without a veil. Many around them were crying out of happiness. Another pureblood that had been taking the blood further by marrying another pureblood. Once again, Tom had gotten what he wanted.

The ceremony was going without any mistakes and it wasn't late after that both had said 'I do'. Applauses broke out and those who hadn't cried before, were certainly crying now as well as cheering. Even Cyngus had shed a few silent tears, but had quickly wiped them away when Voldemort had looked at him with a threatingly look. Tom was one of the few that hadn't been crying.

Half an hour later Tom was standing in the foyer and spoke silently with Cyngus about tomorrow's event. Not that he told his friend very much, but it was nice to have someone to talk to. Abraxas showed up a few minutes later with a big smile. Cygnus mumbled a silent congratulation and disappeared without a word. The both of them were standing there without having anything to say. It had been decided for a long time that Tom wouldn't come to the party and now he actually had a reason to leave. Sure, it wasn't time to leave just yet, so he decided to stay. At least for a little while. Abraxas thanked him when Voldemort said that he stayed and Tom was even more surprised when he found out he had been counted in among the guests.

"Well, you never know with you. One moment you stay and another you don't. Then you can suddenly change your mind again and stay even though you recently said you wouldn't. Have I ever told you that you're weird?" Abraxas laughed and hit Tom lightly on the arm.

"It might be so that I have a hard time deciding sometimes, but I'm not weird and you know that." Toms smile had faded.

"Okay, okay. It was a joke. Jeez."

Tom had just finished eating and the clock had somehow become seven. He had no idea how, because when he had looked at the watch the latest time it had only been four and that had seemed like only five minutes ago. He congratulated Abraxas and Alice once more before thanking for the evening and apparated to Andrews's house. Seven was the right time to come. It was night and Tom had said that he was going to come at night. He landed at the same place as before and started to walk against Andrews's house again.

TBC...


	20. Unexpected events

**I will post the rest of the chapters now, even though they aren't beta-ed yet. Hope you won't hate me for it. Anyway, in this chapter. Alice is telling Abraxas that Tom was forcing her into the marriage. Just how will Abraxas react on that? Will he get mad on his friend, or respect his lord's decision?**

**Chapter 19: Unexpected events**

He knocked hardly on the door and a woman opened it this time as well.

"Andrew's not home. I'll tell him you stopped by." Tom smiled and pushed her aside.

"Don't lie to me", he hissed angrily, walked inside and slammed the door shut. "I know that he's home. I also know that he didn't ask you to lie, so I'm wondering why you do."

"I'm lying because I don't like you. You're taking my brother from me without reasons. Andrew has never done anything wrong in his life."

"You have to start somewhere", grinned Tom and walked towards something that looked like a living room. That was at least what it had appeared to when he had been there last time. Andrew sat there in the couch, reading.

"What are you reading?" Johnson flew out of the couch.

"Please Tom, do never do that again. Do you want to scare me to death?" Tom smirked.

"I don't know. I haven't decided yet. Have you?" Andrew swallowed hardly and nodded. "Good, don't tell me yet because you can still change your mind. I will not hinder you, but I believe you know what happens to most of the people who defy me. First, we must discuss tomorrow." He paused and Andrew nodded again. "I usually have some kind of test, which I have no doubt you would fail in. If your qualifications are correct, of course. You're only supposed to kill a muggle. No frills. With the killing curse, of course. You have to know that I don't accept anything else. Not in my presence. If I were to send you and kill someone, you are of course allowed to kill that person anyway you want."

"So, IF, I decide to join you, I have to kill tomorrow?"

"Yes", Tom admitted with a shrug.

"And what will you do if I say no?" Tom was surprised over the fact that he even had the guts to ask, but forced himself the chuckle, amused with the question. The man was the first one who had ever asked him about that, and would probably be the last one as well.

"I'm not sure. Torture your sister, perhaps", snorted Voldemort with a smirk on his lips.

"Then it's lucky for her that I accept."

"Good choice. Then I have only one more question. What would you do if I tortured your sister?" Andrew stiffened a bit, but slowly relaxed again.

"I don't know."

"Lucky you that I know then. You would scream and cry. Beg me to stop and if I hadn't done that you would have accepted my offer just to save your sister."

"I couldn't win, could I?"

"No, I can't say that. You chose the simple way. Have you even cast the killing curse before? Asked Tom and smiled easily.

"A couple of times, but that has only been accidents. Or well, maybe not accidents since I knew what I was doing all the time, but I don't think I have ever wanted to hurt them. Not for real at least."

"It doesn't matter if you want it or not. As long as you do it, I'm fine with it."

"Can I ask you something? Tom surprisely nodded. "Have you ever killed anyone?"

"If I have killed someone. Of course. I killed my father when I was sixteen and after that, I've lost count. Relax. You only have to kill one muggle tomorrow and I promise you that he will be exhausted from all the torture when it's your time to finish him. You'll see tomorrow. So, do you want to be on the whole meeting or not?"

"I can be on the whole meeting. I could be interesting."

"Interesting? I don't think I've ever heard anyone describe one of my meetings with that word before."

Tom disappeared a couple of minutes later and apparated back to his apartment. He stopped inside the door. He wasn't used to apparating into the apartment any longer. Now he only did it if it was his only option. The apartment was completely turned upside-down. Like when Jack Smith had broken into it, a few weeks back. He summoned Jonas, who showed up the second later.

"My lord", he said and kneeled.

"Find out who did this", he spat and Jonas flinched with fear.

"Of course, my lord." Jonas disappeared without another word.

Voldemort muttered a spell and the apartment started cleaning itself. He realized that the wedding party was probably over by now and decided to apparate there.

He showed up there a few minutes later, when he had eaten a sandwich and changed clothes. He barely had time to show up before both Abraxas and Alice parents attacked him. Something had gone wrong. Alice mother was screaming at him in, what seemed like French and Abraxas parents were both shouting at him. Alice father was the only one who understood to be quiet.

"What is going on?" Tom had some ideas, but he still had to be sure before making hasty conclusions.

"What's going on?! What's going on? You forced Alice to marry Abraxas and told him that it was what she wanted. That's what's going on", Abraxas father screamed and Tom felt that it was close that he was hit.

"Did Alice say that?"

"Yes. Soon after you left. I haven't seen either Abraxas or Alice after that. Now you will go and talk to them and tell them that this is a big misunderstanding", Abraxas mother said, a bit calmer than her husband did.

"I will go and talk to them, but I won't tell then that it's a misunderstanding, because it's not and I won't lie." Tom left them behind and quickly ran up the stairs and into Abraxas room.

He was laying on his bed, facing the window. He turned around when Tom opened the door and Tom could see that he had been crying.

"You lied to me", said Malfoy and his eyes were filled with tears again.

"I just wanted to make you happy. You liked her and if I hadn't lied to you, you wouldn't have been happy."

"Are you believing that yourself?" Abraxas asked with a shrug.

"Yes I do. Try to get some sleep. I will go and talk to Alice." The death eaters nodded and lay down again.

Tom stepped out of the room and was fortunate enough to bump into Alice father.

"Where's Alice?" he asked.

"In the guest room", he answered and Tom turned his steps towards the guest room.

He found her crying as well on her bed and Voldemort slammed the door shut.

"I thought you'd come", she muttered quietly. "I'm sorry, but I couldn't. It was too hard."

"You're sorry? I'm going to show you something to be sorry about. You have ruined everything. I warned you about what was going to happen, didn't I?" His voice was vibrating with fury and he almost screamed.

The door was opened behind them and Alice father came in with a dour expression, which was turned into fear when he saw Tom.

"What are you doing?"

"Showing your daughter what will happen when you lie to me." He raised his wand and aimed it at Alice.

"Please Tom, not", begged Mr. Watkins.

"You know just as well as I that I do not tolerate disobedience and disobedience has to be punished." He smirked and turned towards Alice. "Crucio!" Alice screamed. Her eyes were shpt open and she fell down on the floor, writhing in pain. Tom knew the feeling. As if the whole body was burning, as if every bone in her body was breaking and then healed again, just to break once more. The pain was unbearable. He knew from previous experience.

He finished the curse after a couple of minutes and Alice lay crying on the floor, trying to catch her breath.

"I will not ask you to apologize, but it was very stupid of you. One more mistake and I can promise you that I won't be as merciful. Think about that." With those words, he left the room.

TBC...


	21. Confessions

**Next chapter. Hope you'll like it.**

**Chapter 20: Confessions**

He apparated to the apartment and was so tired that he didn't even bother unlocking the door, but apparated straight inside. He was still angry with Alice, but what could he do about that? Nothing. At least not now. Sure, he could obliviate Abraxas and makes him forget what she had told him, but it wasn't sure. Memory charms were not his strong side. He didn't use them very often, since it was easier to kill those who had found out something they weren't supposed to know. Then the problem had been taken care of permanently. He remembered that he had promised to write Cygnus a letter, but thought that it was better to tell if directly instead. He also needed to talk to Jonas about the break-in. The clock was almost eight and he wondered if he had enough time for both things. He needed to sleep as well. It was a long time ago now, since he had slept through a whole night. Nagini had been pissed off at him and had mostly awaken him in the middle of a night and then he had some trouble with going back to sleep. He decided to go to Cygnus first and grabbed an apple before disapparating.

He knocked at the door and entered. He didn't expect anyone to open, because that was unusual. Everyone who knew Cyngus and Druella knew to knock and enter. That was a good way to keep strangers away from the house. At least unless they were invited. And who would invite a stranger?  
He walked through the kitchen into the living room where he found Druella, reading. He was tempted to ask what book it was, but realized that it didn't fit into this context.

"Hello", he said and Druella looked up for a second, mumbled a silent 'hi' before returning to the book.

"Where's Cygnus?" She nodded towards the bedroom and Tom sighed. He walked to the bedroom where he found the one he was looking for, laying exhausted on the bed.

"Are you sleeping?" he asked loudly and Black groaned and turned around. Voldemort muttered something and walked over to sit down on the edge of the bed. Cygnus reluctantly sat and looked at Tom.

"I'm listening", he muttered and rubbed his eyes.

"Good. I told you before that I need a muggle and I still do. Let's do like this. You will find a middle-age muggle male and bring him to my apartment tomorrow afternoon. I want him unconscious, but not tortured. Okay?"

"Yeah, I understand. What time?"

"Come around five. If I'm not home you can just leave him there and make sure the door is locked. If it locked it won't be able to escape in case he wakes up." Cyngus nodded.

"So Andrew will be one of us tomorrow?"

"Possible, yes", Tom answered with a sigh.

"You don't want him among us, do you Tom?"

"No, I don't, but there are no other options. I can always kill him once we've found Henryson, right?"

"A possibility. If it's not so that he's dead like I said." Cygnus lay down again and sighed.

"Why are you coming with such ridiculous ideas about him being dead?"

"I don't know. It was just a thought. _If_ he's dead, you need to know that I have had nothing to do with that. It was, as I told you, just a thought. I mean. There's got to be a reason for us not finding him and that seemed to be the only reasonable I could come to think of", Cygnus admitted and Tom stood. "Leaving already?"

"Unfortunately, yes. I need to talk to Jonas as well. Someone has broken into my apartment and I suspect that that person looked for the same thing as Jack Smith did."

"And you don't remember who found the father of our dear Jack?" Cygnus snorted offended.

"Of course I do. It was very good of you, but I need to know what Jonas can handle. I already know that you can find him so I'm using you as a trump until later. If Jonas can't find him, I promise that you can do it. See you." With those words he apparated back to his apartment again. The fruit was still untouched in his pocket. He looked at the watch again before apparated to Jonas. He was a bit surprised when he found out that he was at Andrew on Ireland. He knocked on the door and entered before someone had had the time to open the door. He was almost crashing into Jonas, who seemed to be on his way out.

"What are you doing _here_?" asked Tom surprised.

"What I'm doing here. What are_ you _doing here?" he stressed the word you with contemptbut somehow didn't find it very surprising to find him there.

"I'm looking for you. How's it going?"

"With that man?" Tom nodded. "He's gone. Missing. Nowhere to be found and trust me, I've tried. Who knows? Maybe it was Henryson." Voldemort forced himself to laugh and looked at Jonas. He knew that Jonas didn't lie. He had looked, but made no progress at all.

"You know, I'm starting to believe that everyone in this word is impossible to track down. First Henryson and now this mystery man."

"It could have been pure luck that it was your room and besides, I could have been a muggle, which makes him even harder to find."

"Trust me, if he had been a muggle he would have been found a long time ago. They're not very good at hiding. Besides, how many muggles turn a wizard's apartment upside-down just to look for something that might not even exist? Have you at least found out what he was looking for?" Not he was starting to get annoyed. Maybe he should give the assignment to Cyngus anyway.

"No, but I'm working on it. Do you have something valuable?" Tom looked down on the ring he had taken so many years ago. That had been when his father and uncle were still alive, though actually they didn't live when he took the ring. At least not his father.

"Just this ring and a diadem."

"Okay, what are those things and why are they important?"

"I can't tell you what they are, because then I'd have to kill you, but I can tell you why they are valuable. You see, the diadem was once a property of Rowena Ravenclaw and the ring shows that I am the rightful heir of Slytherin." Jonas sat dumbfounded and the smile on his lips had been wiped away a long time ago.

"I heard that it was that oaf Hagrid, who was the heir of Slytherin."

"Don't be silly, Jonas. Of course, it wasn't him. How could he ever be? That fool can't do anything. No, it was I, but when Dumbledore started to get suspicious, I had to hide all tracks and what was better  
than to blame Hagrid? Everyone believed me. How could the prefect and perfect student ever do something like that? It was just Dumbledore who didn't believe me."

"You killed that girl in the bathroom." It was rather a statement than a question.

"I did not. It was the basilisk from the chamber, with my help of course, but we don't have to talk about that right now. Let's take that some other time. The diadem is not at my place and the ring I wear at all times."

"Where is the diadem?"

"I don't know. I asked Abraxas to hide it and never speak of it again. He swore not to tell a soul where he had hid it. Not even me. He knows where it is in case I need it, but he cannot, under any circumstances tell anyone."

"Okay, I will see if that is what they were after, but I'm not sure." Tom nodded and apparated back to the apartment and unlocked the door. When he had moved inside, he had been forced to charm the door so that it would only open for his magic or a key, since many death eaters had just opened the door, walked inside, sat down somewhere, and waited for him. In time, that had started to get annoying and had resulted in the charm.

He picked up the fruit from the pocked and took a bite in the sour apple. He had planned to eat it before, but he had forgotten, or just not had the time. He hoped it was the second alternative since he was not the one to forget things.

He finished the apple and threw himself at the bed, still dressed.

"You're mad", Nagini pointed out, savage.

"Not at all. Just a bit annoyed, just like you. How about we try to get some sleep? I'm very tired and since I have a meeting tomorrow night it's probably best to go to bed early. It will probably be pretty late tomorrow", hissed Tom back and the snake slowly nodded.

Voldemort smiled, undressed and threw himself on the bed again. Only a couple of minutes later he was asleep.

TBC...


	22. Family ties

**New chapters. Hope you'll like this as well.**

**Chapter 21: Family ties**

He woke up late the next day by Nagini stroking his feet. He stared at the watch and realized that it was already ten o'clock. First, he was afraid that he was late for work and sat up in the bed with a jerk. It took him about two seconds for him to realize that it was Sunday and that the shop would be closed today. Or, he wasn't sure it was closed. Sometimes it happened that Mr. Burke let it stay open even on Sundays if he felt like it, but Tom usually didn't care. The most important was that it was his day off. Then he would have time to talk to Abraxas about what had happened yesterday and he would also have time to talk to Cygnus about the muggle he was bringing to the meeting. He even had the time to have e meeting and he really needed that now. It was ages since the last meeting and that was never good. Andrew would become a death eater today and somehow Tom was happy about that. Not that he needed Andrew, but because he wanted to keep an eye on him now when he was looking for Henryson. Not that he had had any better luck than the rest of the death eaters, but he could always make an important discovery. Tom was seldom glad these days. At least not for read, but he would be very happy once they found Henryson. If it not, as Cygnus thought, was dead. Voldemort didn't understand how he could believe such thing, but didn't say anything. Maybe it was good now, when things were as they were.  
He decided to see Abraxas first. Then he had finished that and didn't have to think about that any more. Perhaps he was even going to visit Hepzibah Smith as well, just to have something to do. If he couldn't fill out the big hole that was afternoon with something else, but that was very unlikely. Perhaps it was best to visit her. Maybe he found out something then.

He sat down at the kitchen table, grabbed a parchment and a pencil, and started to write.

_Dear Ms. Hepzibah Smith_

_Since my last visit at you was so short, considering you falling asleep after a couple of minutes, I planned to revisit you this afternoon to see how you are feeling. I am writing this only to prepare you of my arrival so that there will be no shock when I show up later. Therefore, there is no need to reply this letter. I truly hope that I will see you this afternoon._

_Greetings Tom Riddle_

That would have to do. It wasn't perfect and looked like a child had written it, but that was the best he could make himself write at the moment. He didn't even know why he wrote it, but somewhere he knew that he had to. It belonged to courtesy and Tom had always been polite. Now to the next problem. Abraxas.

He showed up at Abraxas a couple of minutes later when he was dressed and had brushed his teeth.

"Mr. Riddle, what makes you visit Abraxas today?" Tom recognized the voice, bit his tongue just to prevent him to say something stupid, and turned around.

"Nice to see you too Mrs. Malfoy", he muttered in a low voice.

"You should really be ashamed of yourself. To speak to an older, pure-blooded woman like that."

"I apologize Mrs. Malfoy. I didn't mean to insult a beautiful woman as you", somewhere in this ridiculous talk, Tom saw how Abraxas mother relaxed and Voldemort saw her smile for the first time ever.

"You really think I'm beautiful?"

Tom smiled inside

"Of course Mrs. Malfoy. Everyone says that beauty comes from the inside, but that is clearly not the case with you. Are you sure you don't know where I can find your son?"

Still smiling Mrs. Malfoy told him that Abraxas hadn't left his room since Alice had told the shocking news the day before. Tom thanked her and walked up to Abraxas room with rapid steps, where he stopped and knocked easily on the door before entering the room.

"It's me, and before you say something I just wanted to tell you that it was for your own good."

"My own good?" I loved her and you promised her that she loved me as well. You swore that she didn't marry me because her parents forced her. Was that just another lie? Can't you just leave me alone?" He lay in the bed, staring into the ceiling.

"No, I don't think I can do that. I came here to make you understand why I did as I did and that's exactly what I'm going to do. First of all, I want you to know that Alice likes you after all and she had loved you if you weren't related. Besides, her parents never forced her into this." He sighed and Abraxas raised his head to look at Tom.

"They didn't?"

"No they didn't." Tom took a deep breath. "I did."

"What!? Are you out of your mind? You know what I think…" He didn't have time to finish the sentence before Tom had punched him.

"Can you shut up now? I have a lot to do today and I don't want this to take too long. Like I said yesterday, it was for your own good and you should be happy to be here. Your parents are happy for you and so am I, but unless you stop pitying yourself, I must take precautions. I have a meeting tonight and your coming to it."

"Why?" interrupted Abraxas.

"Because Andrew is going to become a death eater and you know what that means."

"Someone's going to be in trouble. Please Tom, let me torture him."

"Andrew or the muggle?"

"I wouldn't mind torturing Andrew, but I don't think that'd be such a good idea. I meant the muggle." For the first time since yesterday, you could see enthusiasm in the young death eater's eyes.

"I promise that you'll get to play with him before Andrew kills him, but then you have to get out of this misery, okay?"

Abraxas nodded silently and smiled. Tom realized that Tom was probably the only one besides himself that actually enjoyed torturing and killing people. Sure, that was a good thing, but he hoped that the young Malfoy wouldn't get an episodeand go out on the street to kill people everywhere. Not that it would be bad to get rid of a few mudbloods, but Tom liked to have control and that wasn't something he liked to let go of. Something that many people had found out the hard way.

Now it was time to deal with the next problem. Not that it was very hard to deal with, but you never knew when complications could happen and it was better to be prepared in that case. He apparated to Cygnus apartment and knocked politely on the door before opening and entered.

"Hello!?"

"Cygnus isn't home. What do you want?" The voice came from the kitchen so Tom walked there just to find Druella smoking in a corner.

"Does Cygnus know that you're smoking?"

"No, and I would appreciate if you didn't tell him. Do you know where he is by the way? I haven't seen him in hours. He said he had work to do, but not what it was. Will you please tell me what the hell is going on. If it's something dangerous I promise not to be frightened."

It was too pathetic that Tom had to snort in contempt. "You really want to know?"

Druella nodded in reply.

"It's nothing really. Andrew is becoming a death eater tonight and to become one, he has to kill a muggle and I asked Cygnus to get one before tonight so that is probably what he is doing right now."

"You speak of muggles as though they are objects. You really are pathetic."

"Tell me in a couple of years and tell Cygnus to contact me when he gets home. Tell him it's important." With those words, he left the apartment without saying another word.

He hastily looked at the watch and realized that it was much more that he expected. It was already two, but that couldn't be possible. He couldn't have been gone that long. There was not a chance. He decided to not think more of that right now and apparated to Hepzibah Smith instead. It was probably just as good to get it over with. Sure, he had told her he'd come in the afternoon, but it had to be now instead. That was just as good.

Two minutes later, he knocked on the door and the house elf Hokey opened it just as usual and let him inside. He met Hepzibah in the foyer when she came out and gave her a bouquet flowers that he suddenly had in his hand.

"Such an honor to meet such a beautiful woman once more", he said and Hepzibah blushed.

"Don't say such things, Tom. Come in, come in. Something to drink perhaps?" Tom followed her into the living room and sat down in a moth eaten armchair.

"No thank you", he declined and stared at the paintings that were hanging on the wall in front of him.

"Then may I ask why you have come to see me?"

"You have to have a purpose for visiting people these days? But you're right. I was sent here by Mr. Burke." That was partially a lie but dear Miss. Smith didn't have to know that. "Apparently you have several valuable objects that he would like to buy from you."

"And you was sent here to persuade me. Just as expected. Mr. Burke has always wanted to have my things and I understand him, but that doesn't mean I will let him underpay me for them. He's known for that you know."

"Yes, I've heard that, but I can assure you than I'm not the same."

"I know you're not Tom and that's why I've decided to show something o you. I decided it this morning when I received your letter. Just one moment." She called for Hokey who came carrying two small boxes. Hepzibah carefully took one of the boxes from the house elf and gave it to Tom.

"Open it. Considering all that you've told me, you're going to like this"

Voldemort slowly opened the box and gasped when he saw what was inside it. A cup and on the mark that was on it, it had to be Hufflepuffs cup.

"I can see that you're astounded. Few aren't. Mr. Burke would do anything to buy this if he knew it was in my possession, but I trust you won't tell him." Tom nodded silently and looked on the other box.

Hepzibah took the cup from him and but it back in the box and switched with Hokey.

"Something tells me, you're going to like this even more." She opened the box herself this time and gave it to Tom, who was staring on what was inside it.

The locket of Slytherin.

That couldn't be possible. Perhaps it was destiny, perhaps not, but how could Hepzibah Smith have his locket when he had looked for it pretty much all around the world for it. He took it in his hand and didn't take his eyes from it. He could feel his eyes flashing red and considering that Hepzibah Smith flinched she had seen it as well.  
She took the locket from him and for a moment, he was very reluctant to let it go. It belonged to him and no one else.

"I told you that you would like it."

"How did you get them?"

"The cup has been in my family for as long as I can remember. I descend from Hufflepuff you see, so it hasn't left the family yet and the locket I bought several years ago by Mr. Burke. Apparently, he had bought it from some poor woman who didn't understand its value. He probably under payed her as well, but that's not something we can fix now, is it?""

"No, certainly not. He heard the clock in the foyer chime five. "Oh dear, time is flying by. It can't be this much already. I need to leave now, or I will be late for a meeting. Good bye." He stood and left Hepzibah in the living room. As soon as he got outside the door he apparated to his apartment.

TBC...


	23. New blood

**New chapter. Andrew's getting initiated in the death eater circle. Hope you'll like this one as well.**

**Chapter 22: New blood**

One there he called for Cyngus, who showed up a couple of minutes later.

"Where have you been? I looked for you this morning, but Druella said you were out."

"I was out and that because of you."

"Really?" Did you find anything?" Cygnus nodded and looked down on the floor.

"Didn't I tell you to bring him here?" Tom started to get annoyed now.

"I haven't gotten to him yet and if you let me continue I can tell you why." Tom let him continue. "I thought I saw Henryson down town so I followed him. Apparently, he noticed because he was gone before I had the chance to catch up with him. That was around five minutes ago. A reason for me not coming right away when you called."

"Are you sure it was Henryson?"

"Not entirely sure, but I think so. Shall I get you a muggle now or was there something else my lord wanted?"

"Actually no. Go, but make sure it doesn't take too long. The meeting is starting at seven and I asked Andrew to show up at seven-thirty. Then we should be finished with some things at least. I'm guessing you don't want to torture the muggle, right?"

"That would be nice if I didn't have to and besides. You and Abraxas seem to do that pretty well yourselves."

"You don't have to today, but only because you brought him. You can go." Cygnus disappeared and Tom sat down in a chair, exhausted. Nagini came and slithered around his legs, but Voldemort pushed her down again. He was too tired for her games right now.  
_  
"Why are you so mad, master_?" she hissed and Tom closed his eyes.  
_  
"I'm not mad. I'm tired and have found out too much today. That Hepzibah Smith has my locked and Hufflepuffs cup. Now I have to kill her to get to them and soon. I can't wait much longer."_  
Tom agreed and their conversation was interrupted when Cygnus apparated back with an unconscious man around thirty years old.

"Then do so. Kill her, take those things and then you can go and be away for as long as you desire. Perhaps gather more followers. Get rid of Andrew. You can kill him as soon and you've found Henryson at least.

Then you don't need him anymore.

"That wasn't very hard, was it?"

"Did I ever say it was going to be hard?"

"No, but you have to start somewhere. He's going to wake up in a while. Do me a favor and bind his hands and feet. It's a lot easier to make sure e won't escape then. You're sure he's a muggle, right?"

"I'm sure, but why does it matter if he would be a mudblood or a squib. He still going to die.""

"I have my reasons. Now bind." Cygnus sighed, but conjured some rope and did as he was told.

"I still don't understand. Where is the meeting held today by the way?"

"You'll see."

Cygnus disapparated and left Tom alone with the unconscious man.

When it started to get close to seven, Voldemort took the man to an empty graveyard. He had woken up about an hour ago, but Tom had made sure he was unconscious pretty soon again. He knew he had promised Andrew to be on the meeting, but things changed.

When he clock chimed seven, he called for his followers. They came immediately. Some of them aware of the meeting, some not. The bowed deeply at Tom and formed a circle. Everyone had their position. They always had. It was easier to see who was missing then.

"Welcome dear friends. I hope that you're as happy to see me, as I am to see you." Some of them slowly nodded. "Now to todays order. I need to know what is going on at the ministry and with

Henryson. Other than that, we are welcoming a new friend here. Therefore we have a little guest today." Everyone's eyes fell on the unconscious man that lay a couple of feet away. "Any volunteer who wants to starts? Dolohov perhaps?"  
The man named Dolohov nodded and stepped forward. Everyone knew how uncomfortable it was to tell Tom something. If something had gone wrong or if there was a mistake it wasn't often he took it out on the one who had done the mistake, but the one who told him about it. Therefore, it was best to not say too much, but still not too little.

"How are things going at the ministry? Any news?"

"I'm afraid not very much. The minister doesn't say very much these days so it's hard to find out anything."

"Good. Keep doing what you're doing and tell me when you find out something." Dolohov bowed and took a step back. "Then perhaps Cygnus can tell me about Henryson.

Cygnus stepped forward and bowed. "We've done no progress this far, but we've recently gotten some new information that we will check out as soon as we have the time." Tom nodded and Cygnus stepped back.

"So there is no one who's actually found out anything since our last meeting about a month ago?" No one said anything. Perhaps that was good.

The meeting went on without any mistakes, unless you count the muggle then, but that we still no mistake. He was meant to be there. The torture of him went smooth as well, or as smooth as something could go when it came to torture.

That half hour went by fast and Andrew came to the graveyard. He looked around, visibly surprised. Apparently, he hadn't counted on them being as many as they were.

"Good timing. We were actually just finished. Come." Voldemort motioned for Andrew to come closer and said man did so. "You see the man there?" Johnson nodded slowly. "Take out your want, aim it  
towards him and kill him." It was an easy explanation Sure, Tom had told him about this before, but why miss all the fun? Andrew did as he was told, but did say the curse.

"Is there something wrong?" Tom had expected this to happen and was therefore not very surprised.

"Why him? I mean, what did he do?"

"What did he do? That's a very good question. He saw Cygnus use magic and was going to tell the world, so we were going to take care of that."

"Isn't that the ministry's job?" Coughs and giggles broke out in the background, but Tom silenced them with an angry look.

"The ministry can't so everything. Just do as I say and kill him."

"But why?"

"Because I say so, okay. Is it really that hard?"

"You do it if it's so easy." Now Tom had had enough.

"You should know that I had hoped to not have to do this, but obviously not. Crucio!" Andrew hadn't even noticed that Tom had his wand aimed towards him and fell to the ground with a scream when the curse hit him.

Tom ended it almost as fast as he had said it and Andrew got up from the ground with a groan.

"What would that be good for?"

"You hesitated and I just wanted to make you aware of what is going to happen to you if you don't do as I say." Tom was used to things happening during this. "Now let's do this again. Aim the wand against him and say the words."

"Avada Kedavra." The muggle was dead."

"Now that wasn't very hard, was it? Give me your left arm." Andrew did as he was told. As if he had a choice. To placed the point of his want on Johnsons left underarm and mumbled a spell. A skull with a snake slithering from its mouth was printed on the arm after a couple of minutes and he removed the wand. The mark stayed on the arm.

"You, my friend, have probably done the worst mistake in your life. Welcome. Don't worry, the mark will fade after a while. Go with Dolohov. He will explain how this work." He turned back to the ring of death eaters. "That was everything. Dolohov, make sure to get closer to the minister. The others know what to do. You're dismissed." The sound of apparition filled the graveyard and Tom apparated to his apartment. He still didn't see it as his home. Hogwarts had been his home and now he had left that. It was really hard to get away from such a good place and then just come somewhere where you don't feel like home. Not that he didn't prefer the apartment for the orphanage. He hated to admit it, but somewhere, on some level, he missed the orphanage. Not much and he'd never tell anyone, but he still did. Not all the kids though, just the thought. He threw himself on the bed next to Nagini, who was already asleep. The clock wasn't more than eight-thirty and Tom was still deadly tired. It had been a long days and he fell asleep before having the time to undress.

TBC...


	24. Hope and losses

**Henryson is found, but there's a bit of trouble and complications. Hope you'll like it.**

**Chapter 23: Hope and losses**

He woke up early the next morning by a tremendous headache. Unfortunately, there was no potion or something like that to cure it and Tom groaned loudly out of pain when he sat up in bed. With great toil, he managed to get the hold of a death eater. He had no idea of whom he had called for and to be honest he didn't care either.

"You called", a voice said and Tom was staring in shock at Jason Malcovich. It had been a long time since they had any contact and Voldemort had really not expected him to show up. He still hadn't forgiven him for what he did to John and Melinda. Sure, Melinda was Marks fault, but since they were related, he just had to take it out on Jason instead.

"Yes", muttered Tom with a chilly voice and stood up with closed yes. "Make sure to get potion for migraine and make it quick."

Jason bowed low and disappeared immediately.

He was back a couple of minutes later with a small vial in his hand. He seemed to doubt before reluctantly giving the bottle to Tom, who eagerly drank and took a deep breath before he felt that it worked.

"My lord…"

"What?" Tom spat and looked at him angrily.

"Cygnus and Abraxas wanted to speak with you. It was apparently important. Something about Henryson. I wasn't paying much attention."

"And you're telling me this now?" Tom had disapparated almost before he had even finished the sentence.

He showed up at Abraxas soon after he had left the apartment. He called for Abraxas and Cygnus, who showed up immediately.

"Jeez, you don't have to shout. We're on our way", said Cygnus and smiled.

"Malcovich said that you had something important to tell me.""

"Correct, but let's take it in the kitchen. We don't want anyone to overhear us. Okay?" said Abraxas and Tom nodded before going into the kitchen.

Once there he sat down on one of the kitchen chairs and Abraxas and Cygnus sat down opposite to him. They looked very serious at him.

"I, or rather, we, believe that it was a mistake to make Andrew a death eater", said Abraxas clearly and looked at Tom worriedly. He wasn't used to people questioning him and was hoping he wouldn't take it too bad.

"Really? Why?" Tom was appreciably annoyed, but it was still not as bad as Cygnus Abraxas had expected.

"Because he has done nothing to deserve it. If you ask me, he should be killed right as we speak", said Cygnus without prejudice and leaned back on the kitchen chair.

"Then it's good that I don't ask you. It was my decision and no one else's. If you are displeased with that, you can always keep it to yourselves and leave me alone. Was that all?"

"Tom, please listen. We know what you're thinking, but Andrews done something weird. Something good, but weird and I don't think you're going to like it. Or maybe what Andrew's done, but probably not what we've found out. So, do you want the good news or the bad news first?" Abraxas was not standing behind the chair with a convulsively grip of the chair. He seemed to be cold sweating.

"The good news", answered Tom without a doubt.

"It's like this, and promise not to get mad at us, because we've done nothing. It was an accident. Andrew found Henryson."  
Tom lit up, but his smile faded when he saw Abraxas sad face and realized that something wasn't right.

"The problem is that he's, kind of, dead, and is currently laying down in the basement." Tom stood up with such force that he chair fell to the floor. "It's not our fault, but we can't understand how Andrew was able to find Henryson when we weren't. If it's not so that he knew this before."

"How long has he been dead?" Tom's voice was vibrating with anger and he had a hard time getting the sentence out in one piece. Cygnus and Abraxas gave each other a worried look.

"We haven't found out yet", Cygnus confessed and looked down on the floor.

"The make sure to do that." No one moved. "NOW!" Tom's sudden outbreak made both Cygnus and Abraxas jump in fear and disappeared out through the kitchen door very fast.

Tom rapidly walked out to the foyer and practically threw up the door to the basement and walked, if possible, even faster down the stairs.

He found Henryson when Cygnus and Abraxas were practically done with the examination.

"Well?" Cygnus and Abraxas looked at each other again. "ANSWER!"

"We… We're not sure, my lord, but it seems to be pretty long. It could be the reason for us not finding him."

"You said you saw him." Tom nodded towards Cygnus who nodded back.

"I said I saw someone that looked like Henryson. I never said that it necessarily had to be him."

"You also said that you thought he was dead. Explain that."

"It was just a theory. Now this theory was correct, but does not mean that I knew he was dead. It was a coincidence. I said it would be much harder to find him if he was dead and that could be one of the reasons that we hadn't found him. I did as you, my lord, said and now you're getting angry with me for being right. Do you think that is fair?" Tom had to admit that it was a pretty good argument and at least he didn't lie. Tom was good enough in legilimency to know when people were lying to him and that was good enough for now. He was going to get better, but knowing when people lied to him was good enough, for now at least.

"You're right", he confessed, to Cygnus great surprise.

"I am?"

"Yes, you are. Now I want to be left alone. If you see Andrew, tell him that I want to speak with him." Cygnus and Abraxas bowed easily before disappearing from the dark basement. After a couple of spells, even Tom could state that he had been dead for a while, which made Tom get even angrier. This was just not his day.

Tom had been sitting on the floor in the basement for a pretty long time before there was a knock on the door and Andrew entered.

"Abraxas said you wanted to talk to me."

"Tom stood slowly and brushed some dirt from his robe before turning around to look at the new death eater.

"I did. I wanted to know how you found him." Andrew smiled.

"It wasn't that hard actually. Since Cygnus told me of his suspicions, all I had to do was going through the death certificates for his name. His name was on the list and then it wasn't very hard to find the body."

"Did it stand on the paper where the body was?" Jason nodded in reply.

"Good. Where was it?"

"In St. Mungos mortuary." He said it with such an obvious voice that he almost thought Tom was stupid not to know that himself. That fact annoyed Tom a bit, but he wasn't going to take that up now.

"Did it say when he died?"

"Yes. Apparently, he's been dead for about two weeks, but they weren't exactly sure of that. I presumed you wanted to see the body so I brought it here. Anything else?"

"No, you can go." Tom shook his head and sighed in disappointment. It had taken him months to prepare this and when they finally found him, he was dead. He was supposed to give him information about the ministry. Tom didn't want anything more right now, than to take over the ministry, or yes, eradicate all mudbloods, but that would be easier once he had taken over the ministry. Now he had to wait until he had that information and that wouldn't be easy. Maybe it was too early to start with that  
right here and now, but he wasn't a hundred percent sure.

He sat down there the entire day without saying a word. Cygnus and Abraxas had been down there a couple of times to see how he was feeling, but Tom had just told them to go away. He had almost gone as far as torturing Cygnus when he didn't do as he was told. Not that he didn't tortured people when they didn't do as they were told, but still. Sometime he had to have fallen asleep and that with a smile on his lips. He knew exactly who he was going to take out his anger on the next day and that would make him a lot happier. Besides, he didn't have to worry about losing any death eater. That was what he had been thinking of the entire day. That and to become immortal, and he would be even closer tomorrow after a little murder. All he had to do was to kill at least one person tomorrow and then take some of that persons belonging to his apartment. Everything was perfect and now nothing could come between Tom and his victim.

TBC...


	25. Gains and losses

**Tom payes a visit to Hepzibah Smith. How will that go? Only the epilogue left now.**

**Chapter 24: Gains and losses**

It was almost morning when Tom finally came up from the basement and walked into the kitchen where both Cygnus and Abraxas were sitting. They were apparently up early today, despite having a good reason for it. Tom found it odd, bud decided not to say anything. He wasn't in the mood of joking comments right now.

"So you finally came up? We've waited for you the whole night." So that explained the thing. Voldemort thought it was something like that, but he had been too unsure to say anything. It wasn't like him to not say anything because he might embarrass himself in front of his followers, but he guessed it was the shock. He couldn't remember much of the night. Only that someone had come down around three and checked if he was okay. The man had of course been tortured for disturbing him, but for once, he didn't care. However, that wasn't unusual. He tortured and killed the ones he needed and didn't usually remember the name. It was unnecessary if they still were dead.

He sat down at the table and both death eaters made a move to stand, but Tom waved it away and they sat down again.

"There was nothing you could have done, was it?"

"No, my lord. We did everything in our power, but he had been dead for a while when we found him so it was pointless. I'm sorry." Abraxas looked down on the table, ashamed and Tom looked at Cygnus.

"Why did you think he was dead?"

"I don't know my lord. I guess it was just a thought. I'm sorry if I gave you false hopes. I didn't mean to."

"I forgive you, but only this time, okay?" Cygnus nodded silently at the thought of asking for forgiveness of his lord. It usually ended with torture and you had to make it up for months before getting a somewhat good treatment. Of course, this varied, depending on what you had done.

"Tom, can I ask you something?" Voldemort noticed the good transition of both toneand calling him by name again. Maybe it had just been politeness before since they didn't know how he was going to react. He had probably reacted positively and therefore they returned to use his incredible awful name. He couldn't understand why his mother didn't give him a better name, or at least died before naming him. That had been a way as well, but apparently he didn't always get as he wanted, which he thought was very frustrating.

"Of course." The answer was as neutral as it could be and Abraxas was visibly surprised. He had obviously expected him to get mad or something like that.

"How are you feeling?" Tom looked at him. That wasn't the first question he had expected to have. He decided to be honest for once.

"I'm not really sure. Disappointed I guess. At the same time, I almost expected this to happen. Maybe I've been thinking as Cygnus for a longer time, just not admitting it to myself. It was stupid to hope I guess." Abraxas nodded in sympathy.

"Tea?"

Tom jerked once more, but nodded slowly. Almost immediately, there was a cup of tea before him. Obviously, there was someone here that wanted his wish to be fulfilled as soon as possible. Somewhere he understood that they didn't do this because they were death eaters, but because they were his friends. Tom snorted at the thought and took a sip of the tea. It seemed to be some kind of mix because he couldn't decide what it really tasted.

Around ten and several cups of tea he remembered what he had planned to do this day. He had waited long enough now and hoped that he would find what he was looking for. Not that anyone could keep something hidden from him for a longer time, but still. Maybe it was worth waiting. Sure, it had only been a couple of days, but those days had been going really slow. Now it was time, at least. He should bring someone. The searching would go twice as fast even if the one he brought didn't work as fast and effective as Tom.

"Come", he said to Abraxas and Cygnus before standing up and apparated to his apartment where Nagini patiently was waiting for him. Unfortunately, it wasn't a good day to bring her. Well, it never was, but Tom made exceptions now and then to keep her satisfied. Though it was probably worth it when you saw the result even if he didn't want to tell her that.

The death eaters showed up the second after him. Both as confused.

"I need your help and at the moment, you're the only ones I trust. Bring your masks and come with me." They did as they were told. Used to not get any more information and Tom understood that it was very frustrating, but he didn't have time to explain everything. This was too important. As soon they were done, which was only a couple of seconds later, they apparated to Hepzibahs house. It was time.

Tom told Abraxas and Cygnus to stay outside until he called for them. He also explained that they were only there in case something went overboard and to help him look. Cygnus had complained over the dressing, but a threatingly look from Tom had silence him. At least for now.

Voldemort walked into the house without knocking and Hepzibah was surprised to say the least. Perhaps it was the fact that she hugged him, which made him smile, but he didn't know for sure. He had never liked her and was only happy over the fact that she would be dead in a couple of minutes.

"What a surprise, Tom. Come in, come in. I'm sorry if I have nothing to offer.If I had known I'd have guests I would of course had Hokey baking something."

"It's alright Miss. Hepzibah. I'm not here for the cookies. What I had planned is a bit more valuable." Smith looked very surprised, but sighed after a while.

"You want the cup and the locked, don't you Tom? Is it Mr. Burke that has sent you again?"

"You have no idea how right you are, even if half of it is wrong. You're right about the face that I want the cup and the locket, but I don't want to give them to Burke. No, I need them for my private collection.

"I won't sell them, Tom and you know that."

"I am aware of that and if I'd have any intentions of buying them you would have been told so before. I work in Knockturn alley. I don't make a fortune and I thought you knew that. No, I thought of a bit cheaper way to get them." Hepzibahs eyes shot open when she realized what he meant. Perhaps she was going to lose her most valuable things anyway. She was even more shocked when she saw Toms hand slide down to the pocket where he kept his wand, just to aim it at her.

"I was hoping we wouldn't have to do this, but we don't seem to have any other choice. It's your call. Tell me where they are and I might spare your life.

"You will never find them and you're not man enough to kill me." Tom started to become incredible frustrated, but was determined to not let her see that. At least not yet.

"You don't think I'm capable of killing a torturing?" She shook her head and Tom continued. "I've done it several times and I have no problem with doing it again. There is a certain curse I like very much when you talk about torture and I don't think I have to tell you which one I mean. She shook her head once again.

"No, you can't. Not you", she whispered. Her voice had cracked and you could see that she was terrified.

"I will give you one more chance to tell me where you've hidden them. You know what is going to happen otherwise." This time she didn't even bother to shake her head.

"As you wish. It's your call. Crucio!" The curse hit her in the chest and she fell to the floor with a terrible scream. Once down on the floor she continued screaming and during all commotion, the house elf came down the stairs. Tom reversed the curse and summoned Cygnus and Abraxas.

"Take her upstairs and try to get as much information out of her as possible. Make sure to get rid of her once you're done." The both death eaters bowed deep and pulled the sobbing Hepzibah upstairs. "And Abraxas. Try to keep her mind intact until you kill her. It's easier to get the information out of her then."

"As my lord wishes." Abraxas disappeared with another bow.

Tom walked over to the terrified house elf and lifted it in the air.

"You know where they are hidden, don't you?" No reaction. "Crucio!" He aimed the wand boringly at Hokey who reacted the same way as everyone else who was put under the curse.

He ended it almost as fast since he wasn't sure how much a house elf could handle.

"I asked you a question and I expect an answer to it. Understood?" This time he at least got a nod back. He was making progress and that was always something.

"Cygnus came running down the stairs and bumped into Tom. He muttered an apology and started to explain. It was exactly what he needed. He ordered Cyngus and Abraxas to let her rest for a while

Tom checked if the information was correct. Incredible enough it seemed to do that and he picked out the two boxes before telling Abraxas to kill her and bring the body down to the living room. A small spell on the house elf. A small modification on her memory and everything's done. Everyone would believe that the house elf had done everything and he would get away again. Think how easy things went by sometimes. Tom thought it could be like that always. He thanked Abraxas and Cygnus for their help and they were separated. They probably apparated back to Abraxas manor and Tom apparated to his apartment. He sat down on the bed and realized that it might would have been better if he had killed Hepzibah Smith himself. Then he didn't have to think about who he was going to kill now to make this work. But that was tomorrows problem. Despite it not even being afternoon yet, he was deadly tired and fell asleep almost before he had time to lay down in his bed. He fell asleep with the cup and the locket in his arms and with a smile on his lips.

TBC...


	26. Epilogue

**Final chapter. Hope you have liked the story so far. Don't know yet when or if I will post another story, but I have some ideas. More of that later. **

**Epilogue**

About two weeks later, Tom sat in his apartment, thinking. He had fie horcruxes now. The ring he had received when he killed his father. The diary he used at Hogwarts, the cup and medallion from when he had killed Hepzibah Smith and the diadem he had gotten from Samuel Smith. It was a pretty good collection, but he wanted more. Seven was the most powerful magical number and he wanted to make that many horcruxes. It would take time to find something useful, but he would do it. He placed all the objects in hidden places that only he knew. He had asked Abraxas to get the diadem back only to hide it in some other place. He had explained to his followers that he would disappear for a while, Just a year and then everything would be back to normal. At least until he called for them or when he came back, which he had no intention of doing in a very long time.

He was so deep in thoughts that he didn't even notice when Cygnus and Abraxas stepped into the apartment, and it wasn't until they sat down at the kitchen table that he registered that they had arrived.

"Are you really sure about this?" Cygnus seemed honestly sad that we would disappear and did nothing to hide the sorrow. Abraxas looked just as sad as his friend.

"You know I am, but when I come back I promise to be the most powerful wizard in the entire world."

"Apart from Dumbledore then of course", mumbled Cygnus almost inaudible.

"What did you say?" Toms eyes flashed red with anger and Cygnus stood up, terrified.

"I simply mean…"

"I know what you mean. Crucio!" A wand was aimed at Cygnus who fell to the floor with a scream. Abraxas looked at Tom indifferently and bowed his head in respect. He reversed the curse after a couple of minutes and Cygnus mumbled a silent apology.

"Even more powerful then _Dumbledore_." He spat out the last word.

"Of course my lord", muttered Cygnus, still shaken from the curse, before disapparating.

Abraxas watched Tom nod and disappeared as well, leaving Voldemort alone in the apartment. Everything was packed down and the apartment sold. When he came back, he would probably have to live with Abraxas until he found a place on his own. As it was now, he hadn't planned to stay very long on each place.

Right now there was only one thing left to do before he left. He summoned Malcovich. The fool who had killed John.  
He showed up in a matter of minutes and bowed low before Tom. It was obvious that they hadn't had any contact in the last couple of weeks. At least not more then the meetings and then Tom usually just ignored this follower Is was just not worth it.

"You called, my lord?"

"We have some unsolved business you and I", he said and reached for the wand.

"I can't remember that I have wronged you, my lord and if this is about John I thought I was forgiven for that. It was a long time ago now."

"Lord Voldemort doesn't forget… Lord Voldemort doesn't forget."

"And what did you plan to do now? Kill me?" Malcovich smirked at his own joke.

"As a matter of fact that was exactly what I had in mind", Tom answered and Jason paled appreciably.

"You- You can't…"

"Avada Kedavra!" He was dead before falling down to the floor and somehow Tom felt relieved. Maybe it was because he had finally revenged Johns death. With a light switch of his wand, the body disappeared into thin air. It was best to make it go away. Otherwise the owner would ask him many unpleasant questions and that would just end up with just another unnecessary murder.

He packed down the last and was very careful to put all of his books in the top of the trunk. That was what meant most to him in the world. Of course he brought Nagini as well, but at the moment she was sleeping around his neck. He left Barny with Abraxas. He wouldn't have any use of an owl so it was just useless to bring him. He looked at the watch and realized it was time to leave. Now he would finally leave England and not return in years. He grabbed his trunk and disapparated way, only leaving an empty apartment behind. An apartment that Tom, despite all nights there, would never call home.

**THE END**

**Leave a review and tell me if you liked the end of it, or if I could have med anything better in the story.**


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